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BALLADS 



HERODOTUS: 



WITH AN INTKODUCTOEY POEM. 



BY 



J. E, BODE, M.A. 

LATE STUDENT OF CHBISTCHURCH. 




LONDON: 

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 

1853. 



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4$.* s <$> 



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London: 

Spottiswoodes and Shaw, 
New -street- Square. 



PREFACE. 



So unpretending a volume as the present collection 
of Ballads perhaps scarcely needs, or claims, the 
pomp of a Preface. Nevertheless, the Author 
wishes to be allowed to state that the idea of re- 
producing these stories in an English metrical dress 
does not owe its origin either to Mr. Macaulay's 
"Lays of Ancient Rome," or to a little volume 
entitled " Stories from Herodotus," consisting chiefly 
of prose, but with a sprinkling of verse, published 
by Mr. Moberly. In fact, the idea occurred to the 
Author as early as the year 1841. He had been 
lately reading many of our old English and Scotch 
ballads ; and was naturally, or even necessarily (as 
a tutor of Christ Church), familiar with Herodotus ; 
and the poetical character of these episodes having 
occurred to his mind, he was not satisfied without 
attempting to give them a poetical form. About 
half of the Ballads were written at that time ; and 
one of them, " Cleobis and Biton," which, though 
one of the shortest, may be regarded as a specimen of 
the plan, appeared in Blackwood's Magazine in 

A 2 



IV PREFACE. 

April, 1842 — some six months before the publication 
of Mr. Macaulay's " Lays," and about a year before 
the appearance of Mr. Moberly's " Stories." In the 
course of writing these Ballads, the Author became 
acquainted with Mr. Lockhart's " Spanish Ballads," 
the perusal of which added impulse to his scheme, 
as well as suggested the more frequent use of the 
double rhyme in the long ballad metre. 

In stating these facts, the Author has no wish to 
invite comparison between his book and either of 
those which he has mentioned. With Mr. Macaulay's 
spirited and popular " Lays" he especially declines to 
place his Ballads in competition. He is well aware 
that, to say nothing of inferiority of execution, the 
stories here presented to the English reader do not 
possess either that national interest which is derived 
from being connected with the struggles of a great 
people for freedom, or for empire, or that excitement 
which attends upon tales of battle, or of feud, — es- 
pecially when the warriors, or the victims, have been 
familiar to our minds from childhood. The senti- 
mental interest of the Spanish stories is also wanting. 
There is, moreover, a gentleness and repose, even in 
the pathos of these stories, which to some may seem 
tame. Still the pathos is often so exquisite, and the 
simplicity so engaging, that the Author is fain to hope 
that, in spite of all that may be lost in a paraphrase, 

2 " Polycrates " and " Syloson " appeared in " Black-wood " in the 
year 1843. 



PREFACE. 

or in a poem founded on an inimitable prose narra- 
tive, these Ballads may possess some interest for the 
general reader; as well as, perhaps, recall to those 
acquainted with the original, something of its pe- 
culiar charm. 

With a view of treading on less beaten ground, 
and being able to present to the reader some novel 
scenes and associations, the less-known stories were 
for the most part selected. Atys and Adrastus, Pac- 
tyas and Aristodicus, Syloson, Agarista — nay, even 
Grorgo, and Perdiccas I., are names which, even to 
the classical reader, are not hackneyed, even if they 
are familiar. 

The general plan of the Ballads has been to 
dramatise the story, where it appeared desirable — 
to bring out the moral in some cases more vividly — 
and occasionally to enlarge on some incident which 
appeared capable of being thus rendered more inter- 
esting. The reader of Herodotus will, at the same 
time, observe that, where it appeared possible, the 
phrases of the original have been almost literally 
translated. 

The Metrical Introduction seems to require a word 
of further apology. It is the relic of a more ambitious 
plan, which aimed at no less than introducing the 
Ballads, each in its proper place, in a framework 
purporting to be " The History of Herodotus as 
read by himself at the Olympian games." On re- 
ferring, however, to Bishop Thirlwall's " History of 



VI PEEFACE. 

Greece," * it appeared doubtful whether that interest- 
ing event ever took place — and the somewhat pon- 
derous design was instantly abandoned. But the 
disappointment of the Author (not perhaps un- 
mingled with a sense of relief), added to a natural 
wish to provide some substitute for so respectable a 
" Proxenus" as Herodotus himself, found vent in the 
present Introductory Lines, which are not to be 
regarded as expressing the Author's individual opinion 
as to the value of modern historical criticism ; but as 
a kind of Herodotean dirge over the progress of a 
too-sifting incredulity. 

1 The passage is as follows (i. 391.): — " The story that Hero- 
dotus read his history at Olympia has been disputed, on grounds 
which certainly render it doubtful." 



CONTENTS, 



Page 

Introduction 1 

Cleobis and Biton ......... 10 

Atys and Adrastus 13 

Crcesus on the Pyre 23 

Pactyas and Aristodicus 27 

The Temple of Bubastis 35 

A Glance at the Pyramids with Herodotus ... 38 

The Nasamonian Tale about the Nile 40 

The Samian Oasis ......... 44 

psammenitus ; or, the grief too deep for tears . . 48 

The Fate of Polycrates 52 

The Purple Cloak ; or, the Return of Syloson to Samos 56 

Aristagoras at Sparta 62 

The Wooing of Agarista 68 

The Olive of Minerva 75 

A Legend of Macedon ; or, the Tale of Perdiccas . . 78 

The Feast of Attaginus . .93 

Thermopylae ........... 97 



BALLADS FROM HERODOTUS. 



INTKODUCTION. 

THE LEGEND OF HERODOTUS READING HIS HISTORY AT THE 
OLYMPIAN GAMES. 

Alas ! the critic's skill has swept away 
Too many a vision of the earlier day ; 
And left, the candles of our youth put out, 
A darkened blank of reasonable doubt ! 
Heroes and kings from storied lands afar — 
Unrivalled deeds of wisdom and of war — 
Now stand enveloped in a misty cloud, 
Expressions forged of ages scarce allowed : 
The simple records, which had nourished long, 
Theme of the patriot's l boast, the poet's song, 
Philosophized, but oft entirely free 
From truth's irregular philosophy, 
And nature's charm, who will not shape her deeds 
To normal forms and well-adjusted creeds, 

1 The allusions to the early Roman legends in Cicero, as well as 
in Virgil, will at once suggest themselves to the mind of the classical 
reader. 



INTRODUCTION. 

But shocks the dogmatist's reluctant sight 

With random facts, that are not there by right ! 

Vanished each legend, which perchance might be 

A probable impossibility, 

Yet seemed of real men and deeds to speak, 

Could stir the reader's heart, and flush his cheek, 

Lo ! in their stead conjecture rears anew 

Cold lifeless forms of things that may be true, 

But oft mere transcripts of some later time, 

Strange flowers transplanted to an unknown clime, 

Types of the past, cast in the present's mould, 

Ingenious medley of the new and old. 

Lo ! the keen critic in his ruthless den 

Destroying heroes with uplifted pen, 

Blotting whole periods from th' historic page, 

Then wooing art to weave a measured age — 

He waves his hand, and palaces of gold, 

Where admiration shrined the forms of old, 

Sink in the dust — and in their place are seen 

Trim modern halls, conveniently mean ! 

A sea of doubt cleaves the continuous shore ; 

Dauntless he spans the wide hiatus o'er, 

And on the bridge erects a thousand structures more ! 

Enough of this ! nor do I now complain 
Where with much loss is mixed no little gain ; 
I only grieve the blow has fallen on thee, 
Romantic poet-sage of history ! 
Not on thy witness — which researches new 
For ever prove more wonderfully true — 
But on thy life, and that most glorious hour 
When, in the pride of mind's acknowledged power, 



INTRODUCTION. 

We seemed to see thee winning welcome meet, 

The Muses clustering o'er their votary's seat, 

An eager concourse standing breathless round, 

Or in the Altis l or on neighbouring ground, 

Regardless of the tumult from afar, 

The wrestler's strife, the swift and rattling car, 

(As 'mid the olive grove the coursers glide, 

Renowned Alpheus, by thy sacred tide,) 

To hear thee read, for the first time unfurled, 

Thy tale, the gathered records of the world ! 

Lo ! mighty empires rise and pass away ; 
Assyria crumbles piecemeal in decay ; 
And upon Media's ripening glories come 
The rugged Persians from their mountain home ; 
Hark the wild tale of rude Cimmerian horde ! 
Lo ! the soft grace of Lydia's generous lord ! 
See fated Cyrus march at nightfall down 
Through his own stream on Belus' festive town, 
That town whose walls, like some wide-spreading course, 
Bore the proud chariot and the four-yoked horse. 

Lo ! Egypt's Pyramids with slumb'rous frown 
On sandy banks of storied Nile look down ! 
Trackless as this their spring, as those their date, 
Stretch the dim records of that ancient state, 
Beyond the Eastern peaks of dawning time, 
Where baffled history strives in vain to climb. 
Fair land ! who oft hast charmed the invader's eye, 
Doomed to a changeful night of slavery ! 

1 The Altis was the name of the ground at Olympia, consecrated 
to the games. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Not unavenged to-day ; for shorn his pride, 

The wretch who dared thy sacred beast 1 deride, 

And in Egbatana 2 , so fate had said, 

The son of Cyrus rests his phrenzied head ; 

Median or Syrian town, what matter to the dead ? 

" But where is Smerdis, whom we now revere ? 

Sleeps he in bloody grave, or reigns he here ? " 

The puzzled slaves the earless Magian 3 own, 

But lo ! the Seven have risen, and one ascends the throne. 

Held by a single thread o'er Ister floats, 
The foiled invader's hope, his bridge of boats ; 
The while o'er Scythian streams, o'er steppes that grow, 
Vainly he hunts his ever-flying foe. 
Let but Ionia's 4 princes speak the word, 
And the wide East shall serve another lord ! 
But selfish slavery that hugs her chain 
Gives the mild despot to his realm again. 

Lo ! soft Ionia kindling seems to feel, 
Too soon to fade, the glow of patriot zeal ; 



1 Cambyses first, mocked the priests of Apis, and then slew the 
sacred ox. 

2 The reader of Shakspeare will remember the death of Henry IV. 
in the Jerusalem chamber. " In this Jerusalem shall Henry die." 

3 Smerdis the Magian, who for seven months personated success- 
fully Smerdis the son of Cyrus, had had his ears cut off for some 
offence, which aided in his detection. The " one," is Darius, who 
is also spoken of in the next paragraph. 

* The tyrants of Ionia, who owed their posts to the Persian 
Monarch, determined by a majority to preserve the bridge of boats, 
and so secure the return of Darius, and the continuance of their own 
power. 



INTRODUCTION. 

And Athens' ships are sailing o'er the sea 

To aid the slaves who care not to be free, 

Those ships that brought the East to Hellas' shore, 

Source of her woe but of her greatness more ! 

And from that hour in loftier tones he read 

Of Persia's coming, and of Hellas' dread ; 

And how, that dread dispersed, a wondrous glory 

Lit l plain, and pass, and gulf renowned in story ! 

While from the veil, that shrouds her perfect form 

Till those who woo with heartfelt love are warm. 

Flashed forth, too seldom seen by mortal eye, 

The virgin smile of genuine liberty ! 

And some are 2 fighting side by side with those 

Whom but of late they deemed their deadliest foes, 

And some 3 have left their land (for honour calls), 

Embarking houseless in their " wooden walls," 

While slighted 4 Persia's fire devours again 

Each pleasant home, each consecrated fane — 

Yet better thus than there as slaves remain ! 

E'en selfish Sparta, for a moment, caught 

The pure contagion of the patriot thought, 

And won between the mountains and the sea, 

Leonidas, a deathless name for thee ! 

Twice 5 on the land, twice routed on the main, 

The Persian flies, and Hellas breathes again ; 

So runs the mild narrator's glowing strain ! 



1 Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis. 

2 The Athenians and iEginetans. 

3 The Athenians. The oracle had warned them to seek for safety 
in " wooden walls," rightly judged by the majority to be their ships. 

4 " Slighted." The Persians had made most advantageous offers 
to Athens if she would desert the common cause. 

5 At Marathon and Platsea, and at Salamis and Mycale. 

*B 3 



INTRODUCTION. 

He weighs the glories of each rival state, 

Records each high emprise, each grave debate, 

The spring of resolute will, the crushing wheels of fate. 

And now and then, 'mid feud and battle's din, 
A people's phrenzy or a tyrant's sin, 
A welcome guest intrudes, some pleasant tale, 
Like sweet notes wafted on the evening gale 
To one who musing in a lonely room 
Peoples the past with images of gloom : — 

The Argive brethren draw their mother's car ; 
Fades the proud court, and sinks the crash of war. 
The Phrygian bows beneath his sorrow's load, 
And tears are in the eyes that lately glowed. 
The Lydian monarch climbs his fiery grave, 
And Athens weeps whom Solon's name could save ; 
The Archer-god defends the suppliant's cause, 
And pious hearts beat high in mute applause. 

Anon some old Egyptian fane he shows, 
Sleeping unchanged in mystical repose ; 
Or darkling maze, an unimagined pile, 
Or sourceless river, or enchanted isle ; 
And magic waters play, and green oases smile ! 

Pale Psammenitus mourns his tearless lot, 
And Afric's wondrous shows are all forgot. 
The Samian prince, who listened all too long 
To the soft music of Anacreon's song:, 



INTRODUCTION. 

By dreams and loving fears detained in vain, 
Leaves the bright isle he ne'er shall see again, 
By dark Orsetes' lure and vengeful treachery slain. 
Restored from exile by the Persian's power, 
Why weeps his brother in his victory's hour ? 
Boasts new-made royalty no blither cheer ? 
Ah ! lonely state ; ah ! conquest bought too dear ! 

In early virtue wise, see Gorgo now, 
A maiden flush upon her daring brow, 
Warns her weak sire, that child of eight years' old, 
To fly, ere yet too late, the stranger's gold. 

Fair Agarista wins all Greece to woo ; 
From every land the rivals pass in view, 
And, prized o'er all when came the eventful hour, 
Victorious Athens culls the royal flower. 

See rising deathless from it's withered root 
Athena's olive darts its wondrous shoot ; 
Blest plant ! nor fire nor steel can check thy spring, 
Nor Persia's youthful lord, nor Sparta's aged king. 1 

Lo ! Alexander, eager for the start, 
Amid the runners stands with throbbing heart, 
The while th' impartial hallowed judges trace 
From far Perdiccas his Hellenic race, 
What time, defrauded of his promised pay, 
He bore Lebasa's proffered sun away, 
Mysterious emblem of his destined sway ! 

1 Xerxes and Archidamus. The allusion is to the famous chorus 
in Sophocles. v£d. Col. 701. 

B 4 



INTRODUCTION. 

The pensive Persian at the festive board 
Foretells, yet cannot shun, the fated sword, 

With tales like these he studs his shadowy sky, 
Bright stars around the moon of history ; 
Or islets round some larger island spread, 
Which oft the traveller turns aside to tread, 
Where gleams some pillared cave or sleep th' ancestral dead 
Green resting places, lest we toil too fast 
Along the dusty desert of the past ; 
Or tasseled fringe round purple robe of state, 
Which, while it lengthens, seems to break its weight. 

And now and then, 'mid strange description true, 
While art or nature's marvels court our view, 
Pausing he deals his quaintly-wise applause 
To seemly customs or to blameless laws, 
Or from some simple fact some sage conclusion draws ! 
A daedal mass the vast embroidery grows ; 
And with a thousand varied colours glows ; 
Yet, ne'er displaced, one thread pervades the whole, 
The artless musing of a loving soul ! 

Entranced they heard ; and, in his generous youth, 
The sage enthusiast * of historic truth, 
The warrior annalist, who lived to climb 
By sterner paths to kindred heights sublime, 



1 Thucydides. This anecdote must of course fall with that of the 
history being read at Olympia. 



INTRODUCTION. 

Saw Hellas breathless while the stranger spoke, 
Heard the loud shouts which when he ended woke, 
And doubtful half, half-conscious of his worth, 
Into a flood of emulous tears broke forth. 

While thus I laboured in my task of love, 
(Happy if gentle souls, like thine, approve, 
Old friend, whose tales, though much beschooled they be, 
Unhackneyed wear their early charm for me,) 
And for a moment, in that pleasant dream, 
Drank in thy voice beside Alpheus' stream, 
Sudden there fell upon the structure fair 
The critic's bolt, " Perchance he was not there ! " 



10 



CLEOBXS MD BITON. 



The story of Cleobis and Biton was related 2 , according to Herodotus, by- 
Solon, the Athenian lawgiver and philosopher, to Croesus, king of Lydia, in 
the course of the memorable conversation in which he astonished the prosperous 
monarch by refusing him the title of " Happy" or " Blessed," on account of the 
uncertainty that enveloped his future lot. Cleobis and Biton, as well as 
Tellus the Athenian, are for this reason preferred by the philosopher before 
the mightiest prince " on this side the Halys." The notion of the mother of 
the heroes of the story being priestess of the temple is taken from Cicero 
(Tusc. Qusest. i. 47.), and Servius (on Virg. JEn. iii. 532.). 



I. 

To-day it is the holy feast in Juno's temple fair — 

To-day the priestess to the fane must in her car repair ; 

All in her car she rides in state, amidst the sacred band, 

And mail-clad youths before her march, the noblest of the land ! 



II. 

But wherefore is the priestess' brow so sorrowful to-day ? 
And wherefore in her chamber high doth she so long delay ? 
And where are they, the oxen white, that must her chariot draw 
Unto the temple's holy gates, according to the law ? 

1 Herod, i. 31. 

2 It appears doubtful whether this visit of Solon to the court of Croesus ever 
took place. 



CLEOBIS AND BITON. 11 

HI. 
She said, " It is the holy feast in Juno's temple fair ; 
But T, the priestess of the fane, to-day shall not be there ; 
For the lazy herdsmen have not brought the oxen for my car : 
The hour is late — the people wait — and oh ! the fane is far !" 

IV. 

" Now smile again, dear Mother, smile ! we will soon that loss repair, 
Thy sons will take the oxen's place, and quickly draw thee there. 
Come, Brother, come, put forth thy strength, our task will soon be 

o'er ; 
Hurrah ! was ever lady drawn so gallantly before ? " 

v. 
For four long miles they drew the car, those brethren bold and 

strong, 
And soon before the temple stood amid the wondering throng ; 
And all the host from Argos town came nocking round them there, 
To see the mother and the sons, — a goodly sight, and rare ! 

VI. 

And Argos' sons those brethren praised, for their strength and 

courage bold — 
" Were never seen such stately forms of so strong and fair a 

mould!" 
And Argos' daughters one and all around the mother press'd — 
" Oh, happy thou with two such sons as these bold brethren blest !" 

vn. 
Oh ! brightly shone that mother's eye, and her glance was high 

and proud, 
For the noble deed her sons had done, and the praises of the crowd ; 
And she s'ood before the imaged form in Juno's temple fair, 
And her mother's heart was beating high, as she breathed her 

eager prayer : — ; 



12 CLEOBIS AND BITON. 

VIII. 
" Oh ! Goddess, whom in Argos town we reverence and obey, 
To Cleobis and Biton grant the boon I ask to-day ; 
For the honour they have done to me to them I pray be given, 
The choicest gift, whate'er it be, that man may ask of heaven." 

IX. 

The holy rites are over now, and the feasting is begun ; 
And there the happy mother sits between each gallant son ; 
Till sleep stole o'er their weary eyes, and on the hallowed ground, 
Together sank those sons so true, in deepest slumber bound. 

x. 

Why wake they not ? the feast is o'er, the shades of night are come, 
And from the temple-gates the crowd is slowly wending home. 
Why wake they not ? what spell has caused a rest so long and deep ? 
Away ! they ne'er shall wake again ; they sleep the last long sleep. 

XI. 

With favouring ear the Goddess heard the mother's fond request, 
And she gave of all her heavenly gifts the kindest and the best : 
All placidly, without a pang, without a single sigh, 
They yielded up their blameless lives, — and call ye this to die ? 

XII. 

Oh ! no, 'tis but a rest prolonged, a waking on the shore, 
Where the stormy blasts of mortal life shall rave and howl no more ; 
Where in th' Elysian fields the good repose in endless rest ; 
Oh ! 'tis of all the gifts of heaven the choicest and the best ! 



13 



ATYS AND ADEASTUS. 



In this Ballad the " envy" or "indignation" of the Gods, which, 
according to the peculiar notion of the Greeks, only hided its time 
to assail the too great prosperity of man, first "begins to fall upon 
Croesus. The first part of the Ballad is little more than a paraphrase 
of the story as told by Herodotus. In the second the author is 
responsible for the attempt to describe the departure for the hoar- 
hunt, and the preliminary circumstances of it ; and also for the 
moonlight " effect," to use the language of the artist, and the 
soliloquy of Adrastus. 



PART I. 

' ; Plead no more, ye Mysian strangers, 
Take your band, my warriors' pride ; 

But let Atys, free from danger, 

Stay and cheer his new-made bride." 

" Say not so, my noble father, 

Put not thou this slight on me ; 
Let me to the hunting rather, 

With the country's, chivalry. 
Once it was my joy and glory 

Manfully my arms to wield 
In the plain of battle gory 

Or on gallant hunting field. 



14 ATYS AND ADRASTUS. 

Now deprived of both I linger, 

Idly wandering up and down, 
Mark for scorn's insulting finger, 

Once the gaze of Sardis town. 
What of me with shame thus laden 

Will the Lydian people say ? 
What will she, th' admired maiden, 

Made my bride but yesterday ? 
While fair Mysia, wasted, bleeding, 

Calls me in her hour of need, 
Shall I sit at home unheeding, 

Nor essay one generous deed ? 
Dost thou then a recreant deem me ? 

Father, am I fall'n so low ? 
Let my deeds from shame redeem me ! 

Let me to the hunting go ! " 

Spake the youth, while filial duty 
Strove with passion in his breast ; 

Atys famed for manly beauty, 
And in prowess deemed the best. 

" Not for want of noble bearing," 

Thus the monarch sage begun, 
" Not .for aught of blame impairing 

Thy bright deeds, my gallant son ! 
But in dreams a form stood o'er me, 

And thy fate it did reveal, 
Saying thou shouldst die before me, 

Smitten down by lance of steel ! 
Therefore have I kept thee near me, 

Far from danger and affray, 



ATYS AND ADRASTUS. 15 

To preserve thy life to cheer me 

Till my own shall pass away. 
Child, thou know'st, I have no other. 

Were I thus deprived of thee, 
For thy sad and speechless brother, 

He, alas, is nought to me. 
Therefore free from chance or malice, 

In thy nuptial bower abide, 
Quaffing love's still brimming chalice, 

With thy newly married bride ! " 

" If my lot by steel to perish," 

All unmoved the youth 'gan say ; 
" Yet, oh ! wherefore shouldst thou cherish, 

Good my sire, these fears to-day ? 
From the monster's tusks unsightly, 

Danger there perchance may be, 
But of this thy visions nightly 

Have not aught reveal'd to thee. 
If no more where trumpets sounding 

Summon forth the warrior train, 
Where the battle steeds are bounding, 

It be mine renown to gain, 
While in Lydia's warlike story 

Others shall achieve their fame, 
Let the hunter's humbler glory 

Gild at least thy Atys' name ! " 

" Many a form of death assembling, 

Fancy pales thy father's cheek ; 
E'en to day my heart is trembling, 

Though no human foe ye seek. 



16 ATYS AND ADEASTUS. 

All too wisely hast thou pleaded, 

Nor can I thy words gainsay ; 
Go, my child, yet not unheeded 

Cast thy father's prayers away ; 
But when youth's warm pulse is beating, 

And on danger bids you run, 
When the monster ye are meeting, 

Think, oh, think, on me, my son ! " 

Slowly thus the king consenting 

Yielded to his son's request ; 
Soon, alas, in vain repenting, 

He shall smite his hopeless breast. 
And he bade them call the stranger, 

Who to Lydia's court had come, 
By a father's ruthless anger 

Banished from his Phrygian home. 
Through his native forests riding 

At the prey he hurl'd his dart, 
But the fates the arrow guiding, 

Plung'd it in his brother's heart. 
Lydia's lord with generous pity 

Cleansed his stain and soothed his woe, 
And in Sardis' royal city 

Bade his hours in pleasure flow. 
Yet a gloom, all joys o'erpowering, 

Shrouds him still with darksome wing, 
And his brow is sad and lowering 

As he stands before the king. 
But he gave him courteous greeting, 

And in gentle accents said, 



ATYS AND ADRASTUS. . 17 

" Youth, my friend, is quickly fleeting, 

Tears cannot restore the dead. 
Wherefore, then, in fruitless weeping, 

Shouldst thou waste thy golden prime ? 
He who in the grave is sleeping 

Brands not thee with taint of crime. 
Cleansed by me, by me befriended 

Since the sad disastrous day, 
When thy brother's hours were ended, — 

Wouldst thou now that boon repay ? 
Go where Lydia's youth are arming 

For the boar-hunt fierce and wild, 
Go, and from each danger's harming. 

Guard thy friend thy patron's child ! 
Go, the toil, the glory sharing, 

Join the hunter-warrior train : 
Noble birth, and strength, and daring, 

Should not e'er be given in vain." 

Slow replied the mournful stranger, 

" If it thus, O king, must be ; 
I will guard thy son from danger, 

And restore him safe to thee. 
Though the clash of spears and lances 

Jars upon my alter'd ear, 
And my dull eye coldly glances 

Upon all it once held dear ; 
Though no more my depth of sadness 

Cheering sights or sounds illume, 
And for me each thought of gladness 

Sleeps within my brother's tomb, 
c 



18 ATYS AND ADRASTUS. 

When I came, a blood-stained stranger, 
Thou didst pity's claim allow, 

And my grateful hand from danger 
Well shall guard young Atys now ! " 



PART II. 

From the city's frowning barriers, 

On a morn without a cloud, 
Pass the gallant hunter-warriors 

Slowly through th' admiring crowd. 
Gay his mien, his bright eye sparkling, 

Princely Atys leads the van, 
And beside him, sad and darkling, 

Rides Adrastus, mournful man. 
With a deep unsated sorrow 

Still his heart seems iron-bound ; 
He no thoughts of joy can borrow 

From the joyous scenes around. 
Down the mountain steeps defiling 

Of the palace-fortress high, 
Onward where Pactolus smiling 

Greets them with his golden eye ; 
Ere his waters swift descending, 

Mix with Hermus' ampler tide, 
To the right their course is bending 

Round by Tmolus' northern side. 
Soon the Mysian oaks are waving 

O'er each hunter's fearless brow, 
And the danger they are braving 

Soon shall burst upon them now. 






ATYS AND ADKASTUS. 19 

High each youthful heart is bounding, 

As, through copse or forest glade, 
Many a pipe's shrill music sounding, 

Sweeps the lordly cavalcade. 
Mysia's peasants, nocking round them, 

Guide them on their venturous way ; 
Shouts of grateful joy surround them, 

" Soon the boar shall fall a prey ! " 
Hark ! a sound 'mid yonder bushes — 

Gallants, halt ! the charge prepare 
For the monster when he rushes 

Fierce from his invaded lair. 
O'er the stranger's dark brow glancing 

Gleam'd a transient smile of joy, 
As, beside him gaily prancing, 

Rein'd his steed that princely boy. 
See the tangled copse-wood parting, 

For the grisly beast makes way ! 
From his covert wildly starting, 

Proudly now he stands at bay. 
Hark ! his deadly tusks he crashes, 

Stamping on the echoing ground ; 
Lo ! his red eye grimly flashes, 

As he fiercely glares around. 
Round the beast, the danger scorning, 

Swiftly forms the spearmen's ring : 
Where is now the stranger's warning ? 

Where the hope of Lydia's king ? 
Many an eager eye is beaming 

In that young and lordly band, 
Many a quivering lance is gleaming, 

Grasped in valour's trusty hand, 
c 2 



20 ATYS AND ADRASTUS. 

Who, before his comrades pressing, 

Shall the meed of honour gain ? 
Who shall earn a nation's blessing, 

Slain the scourge of Mysia's plain ? 
See Adrastus bold advancing 

Spurs his steed beyond the rest — 
Flew the spear, — but faithless glancing 

Pierced young Atys' fated breast. 
From the plain of death they bore him, 

Sight to greet a father's* eye ! 
Lydia's warriors marched before him, 

And Adrastus followed nigh. 
Fast before them rumour speeding 

On her dark, ill-omened wing, 
Told the tale of Atys bleeding 

To the sad and childless king. 
Onward on his bier they bore him, 

Last of Gryges' line of fame ! 
Sadly marched his friends before him, 

And behind the slayer came. 
To the king himself he yielded, — 

" Haste ! for me the doom prepare ; 
By the hand that should have shielded, 

Slaughtered lies thy dear-loved heir. 
Cleansed by thee, by thee befriended, 

Thus have I that boon repaid ! 
Oh, that I, my sorrows ended, 

Were with Atys lowly laid ! " 
Desolate and broken-hearted, 

Reft of him he held so dear, 
While the salt tears freshly started 

As he gazed upon the bier, 



ATYS AND ADRASTUS. 21 

Still with generous pity glowing, 

Half his grief the king represt, 
And the soft kind words are flowing 

To console his frantic guest : — 
" Envious gods, my glory viewing, 

Keen with hate my race pursue ; 
ADd thy fated hand is doing 

What the gods have willed thee do. 
Grieve not thou, — thy lance unwilling 

Has my son's best life-blood spilt, 
Ruthless fate's decrees fulfilling ; — 

Thine the deed but not the guilt I " 

To the tomb the monarch bore him, 

Whom in vain he strove to save ; 
Many a mournful dirge sung o'er him, 

Low he lies within the grave. 
O'er the saddened city stealing, 

Eve brings on the hour of rest ; 
Can it lull each anguished feeling 

In Adrastus' hopeless breast ? 
When the shades of night descended, 

And the mournful crowd was gone, 
And the funeral rites were ended, 

By the grave he stood alone. 
And he looked, where, vainly weeping, 

Lay the monarch of the land, 
Griefs unceasing vigils keeping ; 

And he gazed upon his hand. 

" Hand accurst ! shall Hermus' water 
Wash thee twice with blood defiled ? 
c 3 



22 ATYS AND ADRASTUS. 

Thou hast wrought a brother's slaughter, 

Thou hast slain my patron's child ! 
With a doom of ceaseless sorrow 

Who like me by fate opprest ? 
Wherefore live to meet a morrow 

That can bring me nought of rest ? 
Wherefore live ? shall aught of gladness 

Pierce again my night of grief? 
Live accurst ! the thought is madness ! 

Come, oh, death, my sole relief ! " 

From a cloud the fair moon gleaming 

Doth the mournful scene illume, 
And her soft pale light is streaming 

On Adrastus' brow of gloom. 
In his hand a sword is shining — 

Who his darksome thoughts shall scan ? 
Or the anguish, past denning, 

Of the miserable man ? 
For awhile he gazed around him 

On the heaven and on the earth ; 
Cursed the ties to life that bound him, 

And the day that gave him birth. — 
When again the dark clouds blended, 

And obscured that transient ray, 
All was o'er, — his sorrows ended, 

Low in death Adrastus lay. 
When the day, to night succeeding, 

Tinged the hills with roseate hue, 
There the Lydians found him bleeding 

On the grave of him he slew. 



23 



CKCESUS ON THE PYEE. 



In this ballad the storm of divine indignation has burst upon the head of the 
too prosperous monarch ; but it is appeased in some degree by his complete 
fall, and the humility with which he bears it. The story does not appear to 
require any explanation. Its probability must be left to the tender mercies of 
the critical historian. — See Bishop ThirlwaWs History of Greece, vol. ii. p. 167. 



I. 
It was the Lydian monarch kind lay stretched upon the pyre, 
And Persia's lord has given the word to light the deadly fire. 
Twice seven fair youths of Sardis' town all chained around him lie — 
Such was the conqueror's grim command — doomed with their king 
to die. 



ii. 
Where shall the mighty monarch be when yonder sun goes down ? 
A heap of unremembered dust, before his native town ! 
With tearful eyes on those fair walls a lingering glance he cast — 
The stately towers he loved so well — that look must be his last ! 



in. 
With chained hands the Lydian bands stand mute and sad around ; 
And now their eyes are on their lord, now fixed upon the ground. 
But what relief can looks of grief or tears of anguish bring ? 
What mortal power can save from death the heaven-forsaken 
king? 

c 4 



24 CROESUS Otf THE PYRE. 

IV. 
Is it to prove the faith of heaven — to see if Jove will save — 
That the Persian dooms his brother king to yonder fiery grave ? 
Is it a vow that binds him now and checks his softer mood — 
The first-fruits of his victory due to the god of wars and blood ? 

v. 
There is a silence, sad and deep, like the silence of the tomb — 
With awestruck eye each stander-by awaits the monarch's doom ; 
When hark ! his voice from forth the pyre in hurried accents came, 
And thrice, in tones of hopeless woe, he call'd on Solon's name. 

VI. 

For the days of old came o'er him ; he bethought him of the hour, 
When to Sardis came th' Athenian sage, and saw his pride of 

power ; 
Yet, all surveyed, he calmly said, " I may not call thee blest 
Till life is o'er and change no more in the realms of endless rest." 

VII. 

Then Cyrus called th' interpreters, and bade them quickly show, 
" Now who is this yon king calls on in his hour of doom and woe i 
Is it a god to whom he prays to shield him from his fate ? 
Methinks his prayer he well may spare, — 'tis utter'd all too late." 



VIII. 

Awhile the Lydian scorned reply, and ne'er a word he spake ; 
But at length with warning voice and grave the mournful silence 

brake, 
" Oh ! 'tis a man for whom a king might give his crown of gold 
No treasures rare can e'er compare with a friend so wise and bold.' 



3 



CRCESUS ON THE PYRE. 25 

IX. 
" Now speak again, thou man of woe ! and to the king relate 
What counsel gave that sage to thee, whose wisdom was so great ? " 
Thus sorely pressed, he told the rest, and how to Sardis' tower, 
In days of yore, th' Athenian came and gazed on all his power ; 

x. 

Yet, all surveyed, he calmly said, " I may not call thee blest 
Till life is o'er and change no more in the realms of endless rest." 
" Oh ! had I to that lesson sage applied a listening ear, 
Had I known to prize that counsel wise, I had not now been 
here." 

XI. 

The victor heard the warning word, and it seemed both sad and 

true, 
And he gazed awhile on the fatal pile with a fixed and thoughtful 

view ; 
He thought upon the wondrous change that captive prince had 

known, — 
And, musing on another's fate, he bethought him of his own. 

xn. 

" To-morrow's hour the sky may lower, the storm descend on me, 
And I, like yonder victim pale, may doomed and^helpless be'; 
For who can tell the ways of fate, and what a day may bring?" — 
And he bade them quench the kindling pyre, and save his 
brother-king. 

xm. 
With water from the golden stream they strive to quench the fire, 
But the forked flames above their heads rise higher still and 
higher : 



26 CRCESUS ON THE PYRE, 

In vain the haughty Persian owns the wondrous ways of fate, 
And feels that he is but a man — his mercy is too late. 

XIV. 

They strive in vain — the flames ascend — still nearer and more 

near 
They close around the fated king — oh, sight most sad and drear ! 
The pious king who loved the gods, and to each temple high 
Sent presents rare beyond compare — is it thus that he must die ? 

xv. 
He looked around — no help was found — the flames around him 

glare ; 
With streaming eye to Phoebus high he breathed a broken prayer : 
" If e'er my gifts in former days were pleasant unto thee, 
Oh, Delphian king ! some succour bring, in mercy look on me ! " 

XVI. 

The piteous words were scarcely said, when the wind rose loud 

and high, 
And cloud on cloud began to shroud the brightness of the sky. 
That mournful cry to Phoebus high has not been breathed 

in vain : 
Hark, hark ! I hear upon the bier the plashing of the rain. 

XVII. 

The holy power has sent the shower his worshipper to save ; 
For on Delphi's shrine the eye divine beheld the gifts he gave. 
The fire is quenched ; the pious king from harm and danger free ; 
For they who love the gods above shall ne'er forsaken be ! 



27 



PACTYAS AND ABISTODICUS. 1 

The time of the events recorded in this "ballad is immediately after the first 
conquest of Lydia by Cyrus. Tabalus was a Persian, left governor of Sardis ; 
Pactyas a Lydian, rashly entrusted by Cyrus with the guardianship of his 
treasure. The temple of Apollo at Branchidse was to the coast of Asia- 
Minor what his temple at Delphi was to Greece proper. He was, we are in- 
formed by Miiller (Dorians, i. 254., English translation), worshipped here under 
the title of Eicdepyos, the Far-darter. Miiller also quotes from Quinctilian 
a passage describing the sound called Bpdyxos, from which he supposes the 
founder of the temple to have derived his name. This passage is attempted 
to be rendered in the ballad, in the line, — 

Ere hoarse and tremulous came forth the long-drawn words of fate. 

To the same source is due the account of the sacred way from the temple to 
the harbour Panormus, and particularly the mention of the Egyptian lion. 
The curse of the Lydians on the Chians for giving up Pactyas to the Persians, 
in consideration of being put into possession of the tract of land called " the 
Atanian Field " (as we have in Scripture, "the Field of Machpelah "), is an 
interpolation of the author. Herodotus, however, states as a fact, that for 
some time the land thus obtained was unfruitful. He also mentions the mis- 
fortune which befel the band of youths whom the Chians sent to consult the 
oracle at Delphi, as having foreshadowed their future destruction on the occa- 
sion of the Ionian revolt (v. 26, &c). The author therefore hopes that in 
placing it as a prophecy in the mouth of the Lydians, he is not departing from 
the spirit of the original. 

The term " Xenian " Jove, i. e. Jove who presides over hospitality, has been 
borrowed from the Greek. 

In reading the story the mind cannot help recalling the recent declarations 
of our own statesmen on the subject of refugees. 



I. 

On Sardis' royal city 5 on Hermus' golden stream, 
Reviving freedom's sun has shed a momentary gleam ; 

1 Herod, i. 153—161. 



28 PACTYAS AND ARISTODICUS. 

It flashed awhile, that parting smile, o'er town, and mount, and 

river ; 
A mocking light, 'mid slavery's night — and then it sank for ever ! 

n. 
The patriot bands have made a stand before their native town — 
" Once more," they said, " on Croesus' head shall shine his father's 

crown ;" 
And Tabalus with fury sees their troops surround his hold, 
Whom Pactyas 'gainst Persia's king has hired with Persian gold. 

in. 

On wings of fame the tidings came on the conqueror's home- 
ward track ; 

But a nobler prey before him lay, and he scorned to turn him 
back ; 

For Babylon's unconquered towers invite their destined lord ; 

And the old renown of Egypt's crown — if 'scaped the Scythian 
sword. 

IV. 

But he bade Mazares take a band, and seek that ill-starred coast : 
" Our leaguered garrison set free — disperse the Lydian host ! 
Who stands at bay thou needst must slay ; but Pactyas bring 

alive ; 
We'll take the sting," grim smiled the king, " from yonder rebel 

hive. 1 

v. 
" Their leader ta'en, their bravest slain, the vulgar herd disarm ; 
The loom to ply, to trade and lie, shall be my peaceful charm. 
Better for us to tame them thus than to enslave or kill ; 
Such women-men will ne'er again uprise to work us ill." 

1 Cyrus is made by Herodotus (i. 141.) to use similar metaphorical lan- 
guage to the Ionians. 



PACTYAS AND AMSTODICUS. 29 

VI. 
Right soon upon the leaguered town his troops Mazares led — 
But without a blow the rebel foe before that rumour fled. 
All suddenly the patriot bands have melted from the plain ; 
Like snow 1 from Tmolus' fragrant steeps when spring returns 
again. 

VII. 

" And is the traitor Pactyas fled ? methinks we soon shall know 
What town so bold as dare to hold the Persian monarch's foe ! 
Ho ! ride ye straight to Cumae's gate, and say, ' Mazares calls — 
Yon slave to me must yielded be, or straight we storm your 
walls.' " 

vin. 
Old Cumae's startled sons have heard Mazares' message proud, 
And doubt is at the council-board and panic in the crowd — 
For words are rife — " The cause of strife 'twere better to remove ; " 
And " Dare ye break, for Cyrus' sake, the laws of Xenian Jove ? " 

IX. 

" Who draw the sword 'gainst Persia's lord, in all unequal fight, 
Their wives and they shall fall a prey, although their cause be 

right." 
" But who the hospitable laws of Xenian Jove invades 
His deed shall rue, if bards speak true, for ever 'mid the shades." 

x. 

Then spoke good Aristodicus, " When good men's counsels fail, 
The gods, I ween, from heaven will lean, to hear their whispered 
tale ; 

1 " And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, 
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord." 

Byron's Hebrew Melodies. 



30 PACTYAS AND ARISTODICUS. 

At Branchidae the archer-god will grant us counsel true, 
And whatsoever Phoebus says be this our care to do ! 

XI. 

"For oh ! whate'er our country's fate in future days may be, 
Whether like Sardis fair enslaved, or gallant Xanthus free, 
A life of shame with tarnished name it boots not, friends', to live ; 
For a heart at rest is still the best that God to man can give ! " 

XII. 

Thus spoke that upright councillor, and none his word gainsaid, 
Perplexed mid awe for Jove's high law, and fear of Persia's blade ; 
And a solemn embassy is gone to the great Far-Darter's shrine, 
Resolved to know, come weal, come woe, what wills the voice divine. 

XIII. 

Ah ! wherefore sent they to the god his mystic word to hear, 
When the thrilling voice of their inner choice was sounding in 

their ear ? 
Ah ! wherefore to the holy shrine in doubtful guise repair ? 
Why look not to their own true heart for the heavenly writing 

there ? 

XIV. 

Alas ! the fear of Persia's spear has stilled that voice within, 
And the letters bright elude the sight of those who toy with sin. 
And vainly at Apollo's shrine they ask for heaven's high will 
Who dare to slight the holy light that conscience kindles still. 

xv. 

Near soft Miletus' peaceful town they seek Panormus bay, 
And towards the glorious temple pace along the sacred way ; 



PACTYAS AND AKISTODICUS. 31 

On either side the pavement wide stand sculptured figures brave, 
And Egypt's lion thoughtful glares which conquering Necho gave. 



XVI. 

They have reached the temple's hallowed gate at Branchidas divine, 
And humbly wait the words of fate before the prescient shrine. 
And from the tripod came a voice they ne'er had thought to hear, 
" Yield Pactyas straight to meet his fate ! why tempt the Persian 
spear ? " 

xvn. 
They have hied them back to Cumse's town, and told the god's reply. 
And the good and wise with wondering eyes look upward to the sky. 
" Where now," said they, "the ancient sway of Jove, the stranger's 

friend ? 
If deeds like these the gods can please, where will foul treachery 

end?" 

XVIII. 

But all the bad relieved and glad have heard the god's decree, 
" Full well we knew the answer true of peaceful Branchidae ! 
'Tis better far the cause of war from our country to remove, 
Than to risk our head from idle dread of the wrath of Xenian Jove." 



XIX. 

But outspoke Aristodicus with voice serene and stern : 

The laws of Jove are fixed above, unchanging and eterne. 

" Ye hear," quoth he, " the impious glee that greets the answer 

strange — 
Perchance to please such souls as these they have dared the Word 

to change." 



32 PACTYAS AND AKISTODICUS. 

XX. 

Oh ! deep within the heart of man there stands a secret cell, 
Where, placed by Jove 'twixt wrath and love, prophetic answers 

dwell ; 
And then I ween from that cave unseen came forth a warning strain, 
That bade the doubting people send to Phoebus' shrine again. 

XXI. 

They have sent their wisest and their best to Phoebus' temple now, 
And Aristodicus is there with firm yet clouded brow ; 
Once more they wait the words of fate before the awful shrine, 
And the priestess on the tripod sits to hear the voice divine. 

XXII. 

With laurel clad before the shrine the Pythia sitteth late, 
Ere hoarse and tremulous came forth the long-drawn words of fate : 
" Why seek again, misguided men, to hear Apollo's word ? 
Yield Pactyas straight to meet his fate ! why tempt the Persian 
sword ? " 

XXIH. 

Along the temple's 1 hallowed roof, the time-worn walls among, 
The sparrow loves to build her nest and rear her callow young ; 
No birds of prey come there to slay, no truant boys molest, 
But all around the holy ground is peaceful and at rest. 

XXIV. 

But thither Cumce's ruthless son hath bent his steps to-day, 
Those harmless sojourners to scare from their peaceful home away ; 
And plaintive cries are heard to rise, as all the precincts round 
From sheltering nests the birds he wrests and flings them on the 
ground. 

1 The author's obligation to the language of the 84th Psalm will be obvious 
The incident itself is in the original. 



PACTYAS AND ARISTODICUS. 33 

XXV. 

But hark ! from out the inmost shrine an awful voice is heard ; 
It seemed to seek that daring man, the great Far-Darter's word. 
" Oh, wretch accurst, that darest first my suppliants to molest, 
Who beneath the wing of the Archer-king have sought their place 
of rest." 

XXVI. 

" The Archer-king beneath his wing his suppliants shieldeth well, 
The feathered race in the holy place uninjured claim to dwell ; 
But man must slight the suppliant's right, who hopeless and distrest, 
From tyrant's hands and slavery's bands comes 'neath his shade to 
rest!" 

XXVII. 

'Twas thus that daring man replied, nor feared the Archer's might, 
For well he knew his words were true, and in truth the gods delight ; 
And from the shrine the voice divine hath issued forth again, 
But now its tone is milder grown, though grave the warning strain. 

xxvin. 
" Oh ! man, to lure you to your doom that answer strange was given, 
Who dared to doubt the suppliant's right, and doubting tempted 

heaven ; 
And had ye yielded Pactyas up at Persia's king's demand, 
I had left no trace of Cumas's place, uprooted from the land. 

XXIX. 

"Yea, one and all, both great and small, had felt th' avenging ire 
Of Branchidse's far-darting lord, and Xenian Jove his sire ; 
For holy is the suppliant's head, and wheresoe'er he goes 
Wide-ruling Jove from heaven above his aegis o'er him throws." 

D 



34 PACTYAS AND AKISTODICUS. 

XXX. 

He has sought his native city's walls, and told that true decree ; 
And Pactyas to the Persian king shall ne'er surrendered be ; 
But on the town the foe came down, when spurned the king's 

demand, 
And the suppliant is from danger sent to Chios' sea-girt land. 

XXXI. 

Oh ! Persia's scimitars are sharp, and true the Persian bow, 

But they cannot reach from beach to beach to smite an island x foe ; 

And well upon the battle-field the Persian horsemen ride, 

But they cannot leap the yawning deep, or breast the iEgean's tide ! 

XXXII. 

"Then blessings crown old Cumas's town, who Pactyas shielded well; 
But deadliest blight on Chios light, who dared his blood to sell ; 
No kindly soil repay their toil, nor trees their produce yield, 
Nor dews of God enrich the sod in the curst Atarnian field ! 

XXXIII. 

" And when in after days they send to the Archer's Delphian shrine, 
Some crushing blow shall lay them low from the slighted power 

divine. 
God grant that they," the Lydians pray, "may drink of slavery's cup, 
Who to tyrant's hands and slavish bands the suppliant yielded up !" 

1 At the time of the conquest of Lydia hy Cyrus, Herodotus writes thus of 
the islanders : — " Now to those of them who were islanders there was no cause 
of dread ; for the Phoenicians were not yet subject to the Persians, and the 
Persians themselves were not sea-faring men." 



35 



THE TEMPLE OF BUBASTIS. 1 

With the exception of the praise of the temples at Samos and 
Ephesus (which occurs in Herodotus, but not in this particular 
passage), and of a few ornamental phrases which could not well be 
avoided, this ballad is nothing but a free translation of the chapter 
in Herodotus. The extreme simplicity of the lines was intentional. 
Bubastis was the Egyptian Artemis, or Diana. 



I. 

There be other temples larger, 

More rich in gifts and gold ; 
But ne'er I saw a temple 

So lovely to behold. 
Stately is Juno's temple, 

That on Samos' shore looks down ; 
And fair our own Diana's, 

Pride of th' Ephesian town ! 
But for joy to the beholder 

No temple can compare 
With the fane of great Bubastis, 

Whose glories 1 declare. 

n. 

The beauteous temple standeth^ 

E'en as it ever stood ; 
'Mid lines of gleaming water, 

'Mid groves of waving wood. 

1 Herod, ii. 137, 138. 
d 2 



36 THE TEMPLE OF BUBASTIS. 

They have raised the town's foundations, 

They have raised each house and wall ; 
But the temple of the Goddess 

They have not touched at all ; 
And if you walk around it, 

As once to me befel, 
Your eye looks down upon it, 

And you trace its beauties well. 

in. 
With lofty trees o'ershaded, 

From the sacred stream of Nile 
Two broad canals roll onward 

To form the holy isle : 
On every side the precincts, 

Each side a stade I ween, 
The tranquil waters slumber 

The darksome trees between ; 
Save where the entrance-gateway 

Its sculptured front extends ; 
For on either side the gateway 

Each stream of water ends. 

IV. 

And all about the gateway, 

Carved by some sculptor old, 
Tall forms stand forth to greet you, 

Right worthy to be told ; 
And, as you pass the gateway 

Into the holy ground, 
Within the gleaming waters 

A sculptured wall runs round. 






THE TEMPLE OP BUBASTIS. 

And in the midst, embowering 

The holiest ground of all, 
A grove of trees ariseth, 

With shadowy branches tall ; 
And mid those trees umbrageous 

The spacious shrine is seen, 
And in the shrine a statue, 

The statue of the Queen. 

v. 

And from the entrance -gateway 

G-oes forth a paved road, 
From the market-place right eastward, 

Full long, and smooth, and broad ; 
And on either side the pavement 

Gigantic trees arise, 
Far-shadowing, Tiigh ascending 

Until they reach the skies. 
Right onward through the market 

It goes without a wind, 
Until you reach the temple 

Where Hermes sits enshrined. 

VI. 

Such is Bubastis' temple ; 

And never yet, say I, 
Was seen on earth a temple 

With its loveliness to vie ! 



d 3 



38 



A GLANCE AT THE PYRAMIDS WITH HEEODOTITS.* 

The following lines were intended to give a general idea of Hero- 
dotus' account of the Pyramids, and also of his style of narrative 
and argument in many of his episodes. A kind of dreamy inconse- 
quence often blends with an appearance and evident intention of ex- 
actness and investigation ; we feel as if a great deal had passed before 
our eyes, but had only left a vague and not very definite impression 
of grandeur and antiquity. The inscription on the fifth, or brick 
pyramid, in which it deprecates contemptuous comparisons, is 
slightly altered. In Herodotus it is addressed to the passer by ; and 
no allusion is made, as in the ballad, to the " guilt " connected with 
the origin of the stone pyramids. But as some doubt may be felt as 
to the correctness of the interpretation given to Herodotus by the 
priests, it is hoped the liberty taken with the text may be excused. 



I. 
They rose in wicked Cheops' reign, 

And his worse son Chephreen ; 
So say the priests who tend the fane 

Of the great Egyptian Queen ; 
And the royal maid her lovers prayed, 

Who built a third between. 

n. 

Memorials of those evil days 
The mighty monsters stand, 

And all on them with wonder gaze 
Who seek th' Egyptian land, 

1 ii. 134 — 137, passim. 



A GLANCE AT THE PYRAMIDS WITH HERODOTUS. 39 

And near the three a fourth they see, 
Though smaller and less grand. 

HI. 

And some of Mycerinus tell, 

Some of Rhodopis speak ; 
But scarce could she its builder be, 

That fair alluring Greek, 
Although she sold her smiles for gold 

With bright unblushing cheek. 

IV. 

" Despise me not," the fifth exclaims, 

" My stone-built brethren tall, 
For I was built, without tour guilt, 

More wondrously than all ; 
For in the lake they dipt to make 

The bricks that frame my wall." 

V. 

Unchanged they stand : they awe the land, 

Beneath the clear dark sky ; 
But at what time their points sublime 

They heavenward reared, and why — 
The gods, that see all things that be, 

Can better tell than I. 



D 4 



40 



THE NASAMONIAN TALE ABOUT THE NILE. 1 

This is one of the quaintest stories in Herodotus, and is told with 
the most amusing simplicity. In endeavouring to give effect to it 
the author has been guilty of a slight exaggeration in the third and 
fourth lines of the seventh stanza, which seemed necessary, in order 
to do justice to the original in a paraphrase. The river seen, or 
said to be seen, by the Nasamonians is thought to have been the 
Niger. The author has been told that in an Oxford prize poem on 
the Niger, a few years ago, was a line very much resembling the 
last line of the fifth stanza of this ballad, — 

" A pigmy race, enchanters every one" 

He therefore begs to say that the words in question are a translation 
of the original. 



I. 
" I ne'er have seen the sacred head 

From whence its waters spring ; — ' 
'Twas thus that Etearchus said, 

The great Ammonian king : 
" I ne'er have seen its fountain, 

Nor know I if 'tis true, 
Oh ! children of Cyrenze, 

The tale I tell to you. 

1 ii. 32, 33. 



THE NASAMONIAN TALE ABOUT THE NILE. 41 

n. 
" There is a land beside the foam, 

Beside the eddying sand ; 
The Nasamonian shepherds roam 

In that untravelled land ; 
And there among the nobles 

Five haughty youths arose, 
Who fain would know the desert 

More than the wisest knows. 

m. 
" With many an earthen water- jar, 

With store of flesh and bread, 
Lo ! they have left behind them far 

The < land inhabited ; ' l 
And through the mighty desert 

Are wandering to and fro, 
That they may know its treasures 

More than the wisest know. 

IV. 

" At length amid that dreary scene 

A grassy plain they won, 
Where pleasant trees were waving green, 

And goodly fruit thereon ; 
And, as the fruit they gathered 

That on the branches grew, 
Upon them came the people, 

A strange, mysterious crew. 

" Until they came to ' a land inhabited.' " Exod. xvi. 35. 



42 THE NASAMONIAN TALE ABOUT THE NILE. 

V. 

" They seized each Nasamonian youth, 

That people dark and strange ; " — 
" Oh king," said they, " we tell thee sooth, 

But four feet high they range ! 
They are the darkest people 

Beneath th' all-seeing sun ; 
A dark and dwarfish people, 

And conjurors every one ! 

VI. 

" They bare them to their city straight, 

These pigmies swift and bold, 
And close beside that city's gate 

A mighty river rolled ; 
They saw that river rolling, 

And it was deep and wide ; 
And what our mind conjectures 

Oh king, we will not hide. 

vn. 
" Basking upon its banks they saw 

The Egyptian crocodile ; 
Therefore, oh king ! by nature's law, 

It needs must be the Nile. 
And towards the bright sunrising l 

It stretched for many a mile 
From where the sunsets darken ; 

We doubt not 'tis the Nile." 

1 " Toward the sun-rising," which is an exact translation of the 
original, has, as an English phrase, the authority of our version of 
the Bible. 



THE NASAMONIAN TALE ABOUT THE NILE. 43 

VIII. 
" Oh ! children of old Battus' town, 

Ye hear the tale they told ; 
A stream from Jove at once come down 

No eye did e'er behold. 
I ne'er have seen its waters, 

But without doubt or guile 
I give my royal judgment, — 

That river is the Mle." 



44 



THE SAMIAtf OASIS. 1 

The following stanzas are supposed to be addressed by the Samians 
of the Oasis to the Greek stragglers from the army of Cambyses, 
which was destroyed by the simoon. Herodotus mentions no such 
invitation. He only states that the army, on its way to the country 
of the Ammonians, arrived at a city Oasis inhabited by Samians, 
said to belong to the iEschrionian tribe ; and that this tract of land 
is called in the Greek tongue an " Island of the Blessed." The 
" twelve fair cities " are the cities of the Panionium, of which Samos 
was one. The " Encampment " was the name given to the place 
where Psammetichus settled the Carian and Ionian auxiliaries, who 
enabled him to get the better of his eleven partners in the Dode- 
carchy, then established in Egypt. 



I. 

Within th' Icarian Ocean 

A pleasant island lies, 
All in a tempered climate 

Beneath soft smiling skies : 
A pleasant isle and famous, 

And Samos is its name ; 
Off Caria's coast it sparkles, 

And thence our fathers came. 

n. 
They left the proud Encampment 

Where the Ionians dwell, 
Who 'gainst his faithless rivals 

Served Egypt's monarch well ; 

1 Herod, iii. 26. 



THE SAMIAN OASIS. 45 

And as they southward wandered 

To seek a place of rest, 
The gods to them discovered 

This " island of the blest." 



HI. 

They say our fathers' island 

Is by a tyrant held ; 
It was not thus they left it 

In days of happier eld. 
They say the twelve fair cities 

To Persia's monarch bow, 
That time has left no traces 

Of free Ionia now. 



IV. 

We hear the tale with pity, 

Yet are not much distrest, 
Such distant sorrows vex not 

Our island of the blest. 
We hear the tale, and doubt not 

Our severed lot is best, 
And we love our lonely island, 

The island of the blest. 

v. 

A desert stretches round us 

As barren as the sea ; 
But tall trees wave about us, 

And in their shade dwell we. 



46 THE SAMIAN OASIS. 

Arcadia boast not meadows 
More fresh and green than ours, 

And clear our virgin fountains, 
And bright our desert flowers. 



VI. 

A desert stretches round us, 

To us no foemen come. 
We envy not the Ocean 

That girds your Grecian home. 
We too have gods above us, 

And oft we catch their smile : 
We are not at all deserted 

In this our sand-set isle. 



vn. 
We are not at all deserted, 

For safe we are and free, 
And human hearts we cherish, 

Though far from men we be. 
Then mourn not for your comrades 

Who sleep beneath the sand ; 
But dwell with us contented, 

In this lone but lovely land. 



VIII. 

And mourn not for your cities, 
Though dear they be to fame ; 

Our fathers here found comfort, 
And ye shall find the same ! 



THE SAMIAN OASIS. 47 

Here from all life's commotions, 

Some God has given you rest ; 
Then smile with us, and call it 

The "island of the blest!" 



48 



PSAMMENITUS; OE, THE GRIEF TOO DEEP FOE 
TEARS. 1 

The story in this ballad seems to require no elucidation. But the 
author has a pleasure in acknowledging his obligation to Mr. Words- 
worth for the expression " too deep for tears." The exact expres- 
sion in Herodotus is " too great for one to weep at." Thucydides 
(b. vii.), has a similar expression : " having suffered things greater 
than after the measure of tears." 



He sat unsceptred and uncrowned 

Before his city's gate, 
His fellow-captives ranged around ; 

That monarch desolate ! 
'Twas but of late in yonder towers 

He held unchallenged sway ; 
A prince amid his kingdom's powers — 

Alas ! how changed to-day ! 
The guards of Persia's victor lord 

Hem in that mournful ring, 
To watch each glance and note each word 

Of Egypt's captive king. 
Darkling he sat, while onward came, 

In servile garb arrayed, 
Oh ! sight of sorrow and of shame ! 

Old Egypt's royal maid. 

1 Herod, iii. 14. 



PSAMMENITUS ; OK, THE GKIEF TOO DEEP FOR TEARS. 49 

To fill her urn at yonder spring, — ■ 

Such was her lord's command, — 
She goes, the daughter of a king, 

With all unwonted hand. 
The father sees his child pass by, 

The maid he loved so dear ; 
Bent upon earth his stedfast eye, 

He doth not shed a tear. 
Another mournful band comes on, 

With step and brow of gloom ; 
Among them walks his only son, — 

He goes to meet his doom ! 
His hands are bound, his head is bare ? 

Death's chill is on his brow ! 
Yes ! 'tis thy child, thy kingdom's heir — 

Weeps not the captive now ? 
Loud rose each father's piteous cry, 

His son's dark fate to see ; 
But Egypt's monarch's eyes are dry, 

No tear to shed has he. 
When lo ! an aged wanderer past 

That scene of sorrow by ; 
And upward for a moment cast 

His melancholy eye. 
His garb with age and travel torn, 

His tall form earthward bent, 
With listless step and look forlorn 

He begged from tent to tent. 
Why doth the monarch sudden start, 

Why beat his careworn brow ? 
The pent-up fountains of his heart 

Why are they bursting now ? 

£ 



50 PSAMMENITUS; OK, 

Through want and sorrow's grim disguise 

His ancient friend he knew ; 
And from his eyes the sad surprise 

The' imprisoned tear-drops drew. 
Straight to Cambyses' throne of state 

The tale of wonder came ; 
" He wept not for his son's sad fate, 

Nor for his daughter's shame ; 
It seemed his heart was all grown cold, 

Such sights unmoved to see ; 
But for yon beggar poor and old 

His tears flow fast and free." 
Marvelled the Persian at the tale, 

And straight he bade them go 
And ask of yonder captive pale 

The secret of his woe. 
The captive monarch bowed his head, 

And mournful made reply : 
" And ask'st thou, Cyrus' son," he said, 

" My sorrow's mystery ? 
The sad philosophy of grief, 

Taught in misfortune's school, 
Hails the eyes' dew a sweet relief 

The burning heart to cool. 
For common sorrows tears may flow, 

Like these that stain my cheek ; 
But, prince, there is a depth of woe 

That tears can never speak. 
To see my comrade's cheerless state, 

The friend of happier years, 
I weep — but oh! my children's fate 

Lies all too deep for tears. 



THE GRIEF TOO DEEP FOR TEARS. 51 

Far in the heart's most secret shrine 

Those springs of sorrow sleep ; 
Who bends 'neath woes as dark as mine 

Must grieve — he cannot weep." 



E 2 



52 



THE FATE OF POLYCBATES. 1 

There is more amplification and management of the materials afforded 
by Herodotus in this "ballad, than in most of its companions. The dream 
of the daughter of Polycrates, and her remonstrance to her father just as 
he was starting, and his reply, — are recorded by the historian. But the 
author of the Ballads is responsible for the lengthened dialogue in which 
the ambitious designs and character of Polycrates are attempted to be de- 
scribed. One of the reasons given by Herodotus for the enmity of Oroetes, 
viceroy of Sardis, towards Polycrates, is that to which the ballad alludes in the 
second stanza, viz. the neglect with which the king of Samos treated an am- 
bassador or herald of the viceroy ; not caring to look round to speak to him, 
being absorbed in listening to the strains of Anacreon. The reader of 
Schiller will notice, that the present author has not intruded on the ground 
pre-occupied by the great German poet ; for which, however, he can take no 
credit to himself, as he had not, at the time of writing this ballad, become 
acquainted with " the Ring of Polycrates " even through the medium of a 
translation. 



I. 

" Oh ! go not forth, my father dear ! oh ! go not forth to-day, 
And trust not thou that satrap dark, for he fawns but to betray ; 
His courteous smiles are treacherous wiles his foul designs to hide, 
Deep in his vengeful heart he bears the smart of wounded pride. 






II. 

" He hates thee, father ! since the day when his herald vainly came, 
The while the Teian poured his lay of soft melodious flame — 
Deep in his heart he bears the smart of answer all denied, — 
Then go not forth, my father dear — in thy own fair towers abide ! " 

1 Herod, iii. 124—126. 



THE FATE OF POLYCRATES. 53 

III. 

" Now say not so, dear daughter mine, I pray thee say not so ! 
Where glory calls, a monarch's feet must never fear to go ; 
And safe to-day shall be my way through proud Magnesia's halls, 
As if I stood 'mid my bowmen good beneath my Samian walls. 

IV. 

" The satrap is my friend, sweet child ; my trusty friend is he ; 
The ruddy gold his coffers hold he shares it all with me : 
No more amid these clustering isles alone shall be my sway, 
But Hellas wide from side to side my empire shall obey. 

v. 

" And of all the maids of Hellas, though they be rich and fair, 
With the daughter of Polycrates, oh ! who shall then compare ? 
Then dry thy tears, no idle fears should damp our joy to-day ; 
And let me see thee smile once more before I sail away ! " 

VI. 

" Oh, father ! false would be the smile that I should wear this morn, 
For of all my country's daughters I shall soon be most forlorn ; 
I know, I know, ah ! thought of woe ! I ne'er shall see again 
My father's ship come sailing home across th' Icarian main. 



VII. 

" Each gifted seer with words of fear forbids thee to depart, 
And their warnings find an echo in every faithful heart ; 
A maiden weak, e'en I must speak — ye gods assist me now ! 
The characters of doom and death are graven on thy brow ! 

e 3 



54 THE FATE OF POLYCKATES. 

VIII. 

" Last night, my sire, a vision dire thy daughter's eyes did see ; 
Suspended in mid air there hung a form resembling thee : 
Nay frown not thus, my father dear, my tale will soon be done, — 
Methought that form was bathed by Jove, and anointed by the 
Sun." 

IX. 

" My child, my child ! thy fancies wild I may not stay to hear ; 
A friend goes forth to meet a friend — then wherefore shouldst 

thou fear ? 
Though moon-struck seers with idle fears beguile a maiden weak, 
They cannot stay thy father's hand, or blanch thy father's cheek. 

x. 

" Let cowards keep within their holds, and on peril fear to run ! 
Such shame," quoth he, "is not for me, fair Fortune's favourite 

son!" 
Yet still the maiden did repeat her melancholy strain, 
" I ne'er shall see my father's fleet come sailing home again." 

XI. 

The monarch called his seamen good ; they mustered on the shore ; 
Waved in the gale the snow-white sail, and dashed the sparkling 

oar ; 
But by the flood that maiden stood, loud rose her piteous cry, — 
" Oh ! go not forth, my dear, dear sire — oh ! go not forth to die !" 

XII. 

A frown was on the monarch's brow as he spoke and turned away, 
" Full soon shall Samos' lord return to Samos' lovely bay ; 
But thou shalt aye a maiden lone within my courts abide ; 
No chief of fame shall ever claim my daughter for his bride. 



THE FATE OF POLYCRATES. 55 

xm. 
" A long, long maidenhood to thee thy prophet tongue hath given." 
" Oh ! would my sire," that maid replied, " such were the will of 

heaven ! 
Though I a loveless maiden lone must ever more remain, 
Still let me hear that voice so dear in my native isle again ! " 

XIV. 

'Twas all in vain that warning strain, the king has crossed the tide ; 
But never more off Samos' shore his bark was seen to ride. 
The satrap false his life has ta'en, that monarch bold and free, 
And his limbs are blackening in the blast, nailed to the gallows- 
tree. 

xv. 

At night the rain came down apace, and washed each gory stain ; 
But the sun's bright ray the next noon-day glared fiercely on tiie 

slain ; 
And the oozing gore began once more from his wounded sides to 

run — 
Good sooth, that form was bathed by Jove, and anointed by the 

Sun! 



E 4 



56 



THE PUEPLE CLOAK; OE, THE EETUEN OP SYLOSON 
TO SAMOS. 1 

There is but little extraneous matter in this ballad, with the exception of the 
melancholy soliloquy of the restored Syloson. 



PART I. 
I. 

The king sat on his lofty throne 2 in Susa's palace fair ; 
And many a stately Persian lord and satrap proud was there ; 
Among his councillors he sat, and justice dealt to all ; 
No suppliant e'er went unredrest from Susa's palace hall. 

ii. 

There came a slave and louted 3 low before Darius' throne : 
"■A wayworn wanderer waits without, he is poor and all alone ; 
And he craves a boon of thee, oh king ! for he saith that he has 

done 
Good service in the former days to Hystaspes' royal son." 

m. 

" Now lead him hither," quoth the king, " no suitor e'er shall wait, 
While I am lord in Susa's halls, unheeded at the gate ; 
And speak thy name, thou wanderer poor, I pray thee let me know 
To whom the king of Persia's land this ancient debt doth owe." 

1 Herod, iii. 139—149. 

8 The reader of our old English ballads will be reminded of the opening of 
" Sir Patrick Spence ": — " The king sat in Dumfermline town." 

3 This work, though unusual in modern English, has the authority of 
Spenser, Ben Jonson, and Drayton. 



THE PURPLE CLOAK; ETC. 57 

IV. 

The stranger bowed before the king, and thus began to speak ; 
Full well I ween his garb was worn, and with sorrow pale his 

cheek ; 
But his air was free and noble, and proudly flashed his eye, 
As he stood unknown in that high hall, and thus he made 

reply: — 

v. 
" From Samos came I, mighty king, and Syloson my name ; 
My brother was Polycrates, a chief well known to fame ; 
That brother drove me from my home — a wanderer forth I went ; 
And since that hour my weary soul has never known content. 

VI. 

" Methinks I need not tell to thee my brother's mournful fate : 
He lies within his bloody grave — a churl usurps his state ; 
Maeandrius lords it o'er the land, my brother's base-born slave : — 
Restore me to that throne, oh king ! this, this the boon I crave. 

VII. 

" Nay, start not, let me tell my tale, — I pray thee look on me, 
And, prince, thou soon shalt know the cause that I ask this boon 

of thee : 
Round Persia's king a bristling ring of spearmen standeth now ; 
But, when Cambyses wore the crown, a spearman poor wast thou ! 

viu. 

" Rememberest not, oh ! king, the hour, when in fair Memphis 

town, 
Upon the day ye won the fray, thou wast pacing up and down ? 
The costly cloak that then I wore, its colours charmed thy eye, — 
In truth it was a gorgeous robe of purple Tyrian dye. 



58 THE PURPLE CLOAK; OR, 

IX. 
" Let base-born peasants buy and sell, I gave that robe to thee 
And for that gift on thee bestow'd grant thou this boon to me. 
I ask not silver, ask not gold, — I ask of thee to stand 
A prince once more on Samos' shore, my own ancestral land." 



x. 

" Oh ! best and noblest," cried the king, " thou ne'er shalt rue the 

day 
When to Cambyses' spearman poor thou gavest thy cloak away ; 
The faithless eye each well-known form and feature may forget ; 
But the deeds of generous kindness done the heart remembers yet. 

XI. 

" To-day thou art a wanderer sad, — but thou shalt sit ere long 
Within thy fair ancestral halls, and hear the minstrel's song ; 
To-day thou art a homeless man, — to-morrow thou shalt stand, 
A conqueror and a sceptred king, upon thy native land. 



XII. 

" A cloud is on thy brow to-day, thy lot is poor and low ; 
To all who gaze on thee thou seem'st a man of want and woe ; 
But thou shalt drain the bowl ere long within thy own bright isle 
A wreath of roses round thy head, and on thy brow a smile ! " 



XIII. 

And he called the proud Otanes, — one of the Seven was he, 
Who laid the Magian traitor low, and set their country free ; 
And he bade him man a gallant fleet, and sail without delay 
To the pleasant isle of Samos in the fair Icarian bay. 






THE EETUEN OF SYLOSON TO SAMOS. 59 

XIV. 
" To place yon chief on Samos' throne, Otanes, be thy care ! 
But bloodless let thy victory be — his Samian people spare : 
For thus the generous chieftain said, when he made his high 

demand, 
I had rather still an exile roam than waste my native land.'" 



part n. 

i. 

Oh ! " monarchs' l arms are wondrous long," their power is 

wondrous great ! 
But not to them is given to stem the rushing tide of fate ; 
A king can man a stately fleet, an island fair can give ; 
But can he blunt the sword's sharp edge, or bid the dead to live ? 

ii. 

They leave the strand that gallant band — their ships are in the 

bay— 
It was a glorious sight, I ween, to view their bright array. 
And there amid the Persian chiefs — himself he holds the helm — 
Sits lovely Samos' future lord — he comes to claim his realm. 

in. 
Mseandrius saw the Persian fleet come sailing proudly down ; 
And his troops he knew were all too few to guard a leaguered town ; 
So he laid his crown and sceptre down his recreant life to save — 
Who thus resigns a kingdom fair deserves to be a slave ! 

1 Greek proverb, — quoted by Alexander son of Amyntas, at Athens. — 
(Herod, viii. 140.) 



60 THE PURPLE CLOAK; OR, 

IV. 
He calls his band, he seeks the strand : they grant him passage 

free — 
" And shall they then," his brother cried, " have a bloodless 

victory ? 
No ! give me but yon spears of thine, and I soon to them will show 
There yet are men in Samos left to face the Persian foe." 

v. 

The traitor heard his brother's word, and he gave the youth his 

way— 
" An empty land, proud Syloson, shall lie beneath thy sway." 
That youth has armed those spearmen stout, three hundred men 

in all, 
And on the Persian chiefs he fell before the city's wall. 

VI. 

The Persian lords before the wall were sitting all in state, 

They deemed the land was all at peace, they recked not of their 

fate, 
When on them came the fiery youth 1 , with desperate charge he 

came ; 
And soon lay weltering in his gore full many a chief of fame. 

VII. 

The outrage rude Otanes viewed, and fury fired his breast, 
And to the winds the chieftain cast his monarch's high behest. 
He gave the word, that angry lord, " War, war unto the death ! " 
Then many a scimitar flashed forth impatient from its sheath. 

1 The fiery youth ; with desperate charge, 
Made, for a space, an opening large. 

Scott's Marmion, Canto vi. 



THE RETURN OF STLOSON TO SAMOS. 61 

vin. 

Through Samos wide from side to side the carnage is begun, 
And ne'er a mother there is seen but mourns a slaughtered son. 
From side to side through Samos wide Otanes hunts his prey — 
Few, few are left in that bright isle their monarch to obey ! 

IX. 

The new-made monarch sits in state in his fair ancestral bowers ; 
And he bids his minstrel strike the lyre, and he crowns his head 

with flowers ; 
But still a cloud is on his brow, — where is the promised smile ? 
And yet he sits, a sceptred king, in his own dear native isle. 

x. 

" Oh ! Samos dear, my native land ! I tread thy shores again, 
But where are they thy gallant sons ? I gaze upon the slain. 
A dreary kingdom mine I ween," the mournful monarch said — 
" Where are my subjects good and true ? I reign but o'er the dead ! 

XI. 

" Ah ! woe is me ; I would that I had ne'er to Susa gone 
To ask that fatal boon of thee, Hystaspes' generous son ! 
Oh ! deadly fight, oh ! woeful sight to greet a monarch's eyes ; 
All desolate my native land, reft of her children, lies ! " 

XII. 

Thus mourned the chief, and no relief his regal state could bring ; 
O'er such a drear unpeopled waste oh ! who would be a king ? 
And still, when desolate a land, and her sons all swept away, 
" The waste l domain of Syloson," 'tis called unto this day. 

1 Greek proverb, — " e/£7jTt SuAoowtos evpux^pfy," not quoted by Herodotus, 
but probably referring to this event. 



62 



ARISTAGORAS AT SPARTA. 

AN ANECDOTE OP THE CHILDHOOD OP GORGO, WIFE OF LEONIDAS. 1 

The author has so far departed from his original in this ballad, as 
to blend into one the three interviews of Aristagoras with Cleomenes. 
He has also ventured to represent Aristagoras as bringing with him 
a " bag of gold " to enforce his request ; which more material method 
of proceeding will, it is hoped, find some justification in the story 
of Leoty chides, king of Sparta and colleague of Cleomenes, being 
detected in receiving bribes, by being found in his tent x ei p'^ 1 7rAe 'p 
upyvpiov, " with the sleeve of his tunic full of money." The cha- 
racter assigned to Gorgo in after years seems to be borne out by 
the estimation in which she was held in Sparta. (See Herod, vii. 
239.) 



" Now by the Twins of heavenly Jove," 2 

Quoth Sparta's wondering king, 
" So far from home our troops to move 

Would be a monstrous thing ! 
Oh ! stranger from Ionia's land, 

An idle task is thine, 
To lure the Spartans from their land 

So far across the brine. 



1 Herod, v. 49—51. 

2 Nal Tcb <nci7, " by the two Gods," was a Spartan oath. " Heavenly " 
is not a mere expletive, one of the Spartan kings being priest of 
" Heavenly Jupiter," the other of " Jupiter of Lacedaemon." 



ARISTAGORAS AT SPARTA. 63 

'Tis long to cross the JEgaean wide 

To reach yon troubled shore ; 
And when we gain its eastern side 

Our task will not be o'er. 
O'er pass, o'er stream, o'er hill and plain, 

Must lie our weary road. 
Thgre is much peril ere we gain 

The Persian king's abode. 
Then haste thee on thy homeward course ! 

'Twere well thou hadst not come, 
To strive to tempt a Spartan force 

A three months' march from home." 

" Oh ! king, the way is not too long, 

And royal stations fair 
For those whose force is passing strong 

Unfailing cheer prepare. 
All treasures that on earth are found 

In yonder land are seen ; 
There flocks, and herds, and slaves abound, 

And robes of dazzling sheen. 
See ! graved upon this brazen plate 

Which in my hand I bring, 
The goodly lands which partial fate 

Has given to Persia's king. 
And first, beneath these Sardian towers, 

So wondrous to behold, 
By Tmolus fed with yellow showers 

Pactolus runs with gold ! 
And Phrygia's flocks are grazing near, 

And Phrygia's corn-lands smile, 



64 ARISTAGORAS AT SPARTA. 

You will not see such harvests here 

In ' Pelops' Dorian isle.' Y 
And next, within their mountain screen 

Cilicia's valleys lie ; 
There snow-white steeds in pastures green 

Delight a monarch's eye, 
Armenia's shepherds never sleep ; 

And well I ween that he 
Who owns Armenia's fleecy sheep 

No needy man shall be. 
And lo ! within the Cissian land, 

Beside Choaspes' stream, 
Fair Susa's royal turrets stand, 

Where countless treasures gleam. 
And they who guard these lands so fair 

For Persia's distant lord, 
Soft turbans on their heads they bear, 

Nor know to wield the sword. 
Then come ! without or risk or toil, 

And win these regions bright, 
Nor for this poor unkindly soil 

With rugged neighbours fight." 

" Oh ! man, thou wear'st a suppliant's dress, 

I may not spurn thee hence ; 
But this I say, I like thee less 

At every new pretence*. 
The way thou show'st is wondrous long, 

As by thy plate I see, 
And, though my troops are passing strong, 

They shall not move for thee ! 

1 'Ev ra nt-ydkq UeAoiros Adbpidi vaacf. — Soph. (Ed. Col. 






ARISTAGORAS AT SPARTA. 65 

We reck not much of stranger's praise. 

We reck not of his blame ; 
Within his home the Spartan stays, 

Not all unknown to fame." 

'Twas then, with many a stealthy look, 

Lest any should behold, 
From out his vest the stranger took 

A bag of Persian gold. 
He shows the gold, the gold he rings ; 

And at that sound and sight, 
Oh ! scion proud of Jove-born kings, 

Thy eye is glistening bright ! 
Said I no mortaj could behold 

The wily tempter's deed ; 
Sweet child ! — it needs not to be old 

To help in' time of need : 
And maxims sage with added years 

Are by experience given ; 
But wisdom most in youth appears 

To wear the garb of heaven. 
Within the chamber Gorgo sate, 

The monarch's daughter she ; — 
But silent now her childish prate, 

And checked her innocent glee. 
Upon the stranger and her sire 

The little maid looked long, 
While Spartan virtue 'gan to tire 

Beneath temptation strong. 
Perchance it was a prescient dread, 

That bade the stranger pray 

F 



66 ARISTAGORAS AT SPARTA. 

That from the room the little maid 

Might straight be sent away ; 
Perchance some guardian power that day 

Upon the monarch smiled, 
Who answered straight, " Say forth thy say ! 

And stay not for the child." 
And now, forgotten in her nook, 

With wonder-flushing cheek, 
She marks her father's kindling look, 

And hears the stranger speak. 

" Full fifty talents shalt thou have 

All darics fresh and bright ; 
Grant but, oh king ! the boon I crave, 

And aid Ionia's right ! " 

Upon the gold the monarch hung 

With ever-brightening eye ; 
When up the little maiden sprung, 

And stood her father by. 
I know not if she caught the drift 

Of all the stranger spoke ; 
But, when she saw the glittering gift, 

Her soul within her woke. 
And hardly can each thought be guessed 

An eight-years' heart within ; 
But when his bribe the stranger pressed 

She knew that it was sin. 

" Oh ! father," cried that maiden bold, 
" Make haste to rise and flee, 

Or by the stranger and his gold 
Corrupted thou wilt be ! " 



ARISTAGORAS AT SPARTA. 67 

The child-adviser said no more, \ 

But glided swift away ; 
But at that word the fight was o'er, 

And virtue won the day ! 
And Aristagoras has gone, 

To tell his tale again, — 
With better speed than then to one,— 

To thirty thousand men. 1 

And many a stirring year has flown ; 

And Gorgo, where is she ? 
The little maid, a matron grown, 

Perchance all changed may be. 
Oh ! no, the years have only brought 

New wisdom to her soul ; 
And hers is still the patriot thought, 

The strength of wise controul. 
And she, who won that early fight, 

Has lived His bride to be 
Who daring died for Hellas' right 

At fell Thermopylae ! 
Oh ! matched full well, the wise and true, 

The upright and the brave ! 
Had fate no better thing for you 

Than yonder patriot grave ? 
" Oh ! waste not thou thy pitying breath," 

Methinks that voice had said — a 
" Who wins eternal fame in death — 

I do not count him dead ! " 

1 The Athenian Assembly, to whom Aristagoras applied success- 
fully after leaving Sparta. 

F 2 



68 



THE WOOING OF AGAEISTA. 1 

The only additions to the original in this ballad are, first, the idea 
thrown out that Megacles was the favoured suitor of Agarista as 
well as of Clisthenes himself ; and, secondly, the eulogy of Pericles 
whom Herodotus merely mentions by name as descended on the 
mother's side from the hero of the story. The passage of Thucy- 
dides which suggested the terms of the eulogy, will at once occur to 
the classical reader, who will also remember that the character of 
the " tyrant-hating " Alcmaeonidse is to be found in the episode, 
part of which the ballad paraphrases. It has been thought ad- 
visable to give the full list of the suitors by way of adding an ap- 
pearance of reality to the story. The rather touching allusions to 
the former prosperity of Sybaris and Eretria, which were both de- 
stroyed when Herodotus wrote, are in the original. 



From her bower the royal maiden, 

Child of Sicyon's monarch proud, 
Mid her young and fair attendants, 

Gazes on the lordly crowd. 
Many a stately chief is wending 

To her father's palace high ; 
Many a youth, whose graceful bearing 

Well might win a maiden's eye. 
For thy lovely hand contending, 

Agarista, lo ! they come — 
Who shall win the beauteous maiden ? 

Who shall bear her to his home ? 

1 Herod, vi. 126—132. 



THE WOOING OF AGAEISTA. 69 

From his soft luxurious city, 

Sybaris, so glorious then, 
Comes the courtly Smyndirides, 

Famed for splendour among men. 
Damasus from Siris hastens, 

(Amyris, the wise, his sire) 
Epidamnian Amphimnestus 

To the maiden dares aspire. 
Brother of the huge Titormus, 

(Famed for monstrous strength and size, 
Who forsook the haunts of mortals) — 

Males from JEtolia hies. 
Son of Argos' haughty monarch, 

(Phidon, who with reckless hand 
Durst th' Olympian customs trample,) 

Leocedes joins the band. 
Laphanes from Pasum marches ; 

He whose sire, as legends sing, 
In his old ancestral mansion 

Lodged the Twins of heaven's high king. 
Onomastus — name of honour, — 

Comes from Elis' sacred towers ; 
And the gentle Amiantus 

Leaves his green Arcadian bowers. 
Cranon sent her princely chieftain 

Of the Scopads' line of fame ; 
From the bleak Molossian mountains, 

Hunter keen, bold Alcon came. 
Fair Eretria's golden corn-lands 

(Then she basked in Fortune's smile) 
Sent the lordly young Lysanias 

From Euboea's bounteous isle. 

J? 3 



70 THE WOOING OF AGARISTA. 

With a gay and graceful bearing 

Hippoclides marched along ; 
Confident in youth and beauty, 

Fairest of that princely throng. 
With a graver, statelier carriage 

Megacles next came in sight ; 
Yet his mien was full as noble, 

And his eye was full as bright. 
Longer was the glance and deeper 

That the youthful maiden cast, 
Gazing from her lofty chamber, — 

As the two Athenians past. 
For thy gentle hand contending, 

Lady, lo ! these chieftains come, — 
Who shall win the beauteous maiden ? 

Who shall bear her to his home ? 

Courteously the stately monarch 

Bade them welcome one and all ; 
Courteously he bade them welcome 

To his palace' spacious hall. 
Courteously each chief he greeted, 

And he asked each sounding name ; 
And their high-descended lineage, 

And the cities whence they came. 

" In my court a year abiding, 
Now let each his powers essay ! 

He whose prowess shines the brightest 
Shall my daughter bear away." 

Now the prince, each suitor proving, 
Tries the head, the hand, the heart ; 



THE WOOING OF AGARISTA. 7i 

Who in his nature's gifts excelling ; 

"Who in varied stores of art. 
Still, of all that proud assemblage, 

— Whatsoe'er was done or said, — 
Seemed the two Athenian chieftains 

Worthiest of the royal maid. 
Whether in bright armour shining, 

Strove the youths in mimic fray, 
Or in gilded halls reclining, 

Wiled the social hours away ; 
Or, in lofty groves umbrageous, 

With the king conversed alone, 
Culling flowers of wit and fancy — 

Still the palm was all their own. 
Courteous manners, noble bearing, 

Piercing wit, and taste refined ; — 
Theirs the frame of manly beauty, 

Theirs the treasure of the mind. 
To the gallant Hippoclides 

Most the monarch doth incline, 
Meetest he for Sicyon's daughter, 

Linked with Corinth's royal line. 

Rolling months the year have ended, — 

This the day that must decide 
Who has won the father's favour, 

And the virgin for his bride. 
Now the wine-cup full is flowing, 

And the chiefs feast long and high ; 
Many a youthful heart is glowing, 

Beams with hope each eager eye. 



72 THE WOOIKG OF AGARISTi*. 

Nor alone the gallant suitors 

Anxiously the issue wait ; 
Sicyon's thousands, thither thronging, 

Fill the princely halls of state. 
Now the sumptuous feast is ended ; 

Social converse crowns the day ; 
And before the king the rivals 

Wit and fancy's powers display. 
Far above each rival chieftain, 

On that all-eventful day, 
Shone the brilliant Hippoclides,— 

He must bear the palm away. 
Till at length for music calling, 

Many a measure wild he tries ; 
Many a strange and shameless gesture 

Meets the monarch's wondering eyes. 
Darker grew the frown and darker 

On the brow of Sicyon's king, 
While the reckless youth, exclaiming, 

Bade the slaves a table bring. 
On his head his body poising, 

Light on high his legs he threw ; 
From the sight uncouth the monarch 

Haughtily his eyes withdrew. 
Long each exploit strange beholding, 

Scarce had he his wrath repressed, 
But at length his grief and anger 

Burst from his o'erladen breast. 

" Though in many a doubtful contest 
Well thy prowess has been tried, 



THE WOOING OF AGAKISTA. 73 

Chief, by yon unseemly antics 

Thou hast danced away thy bride ! n 
" Little careth Hippoclides " — 

This was all the youth replied ; 
Reckless thus his claim resigning 

To the lovely royal bride. * 
Spake the youth ; the monarch turning 

To the suitors 'gan to say : 
" Great the honour each has done me ; 

Great the thanks to each I pay. 
Would that I on each brave suitor 

Could a daughter's hand bestow ! 
None from Sicyon's halls rejected, 

None should unrewarded go ! 
Well his worth has each commended ; 

But, — since thus it may not be, — ■ 
Princely Son of old Alcmseon, 

I betroth my child to thee ! 
Each a present rich and costly 

From my stores shall homeward bear ; 
But on Megacles of Athens 

I bestow my daughter fair." 

Some have said, the royal maiden, 

Oft as Megacles passed by, 
Followed far the favoured chieftain 

With a kind glance of her eye. 
And, when oft her listening handmaids 

Told his praises in her ear, 
Glowed her cheek with softest blushes,— 

Sign to lover's hopes most dear. 



74 THE WOOING OF AGARISTA. 

Something do I heed their story, 

But my song alone must sing 
How the son of old Alcmason 

Won the child of Sicyon's king. 
Thus, though reckless Hippoclides 

Lost^the lovely prize that day, 
Still from all the rival cities 

Athens bore the palm away. 
Many a patriot chief and statesman 

From that lofty union came, — 
Names renowned in Grecian story, 

G-ems in Athens' crown of fame. 
Little of the tyrant's lineage 

In that generous race was found ; 
'Twas a tyrant-hating kindred, 

Most of all on Attic ground. 
Still a new free-hearted leader 

Rose when one had passed away — 
Noblest-born of all the noble, 

Still the people's friends were they. 
Ere twice fifty years were numbered, 

From that honoured line He sprung, 
On whose lips the listening thousands 

"Wrapt in mute attention hung ; — 
He, whose voice the city swaying, 

Like th' Olympian thunders loud, 
Quelled the nobles' factious striving, 

Stemmed the fury of the crowd. 
He who, high above corruption, 

With a patriot's front of pride, 
O'er the free held firm dominion, 

And for Athens lived and died ! 



75 



THE OLIYE OF MINERYA. 1 

In this ballad the author has to plead responsible for everything 
but the fact, or alleged fact, of an olive, which had been burnt with 
the temple in which it stood (having been first planted there by 
Minerva in commemoration of her contest with Neptune), being 
found the next morning to have put forth a considerable shoot. 
But the temple was that of the earthborn or indigenous hero 
Erectheus, not that of Minerva. The author may plead Homer's 
authority for connecting Minerva so closely with Erectheus : — 

ov 7tot' 'Adr]V7] 
Qperpe Albs dvyarrip, reice §e {eldwpos apoypa, 
KoSS' iv 'Aduivcus elcrev e<£ iul iriovi vr\co. 

Hom. II ii. 547. 



" How blooms it now, yon olive bough, 

Within this ruined fane ? 
What power unseen with foliage green 

Has clothed its trunk again ? 
We burnt the fane with Persian fire, 

We burnt their sacred tree, — 
What doth it there, yon shoot so fair ? 

What may this wonder be ? 
The blackened ground, all bare around, 

Of our conquest tells the tale ; — 
In a single night it has sprung to light, 

That branch of the olive pale ! " 

Founded on an incident related in Herod, viii. 55 



76 THE OLIVE OF MINERVA. 

The monarch spake, but none replied'; 

For none could tell aright 
How that blooming shoot from its withered root 

Uprose in a single night. 
When hark ! a voice from the inmost shrine, 

In accents loud and clear, 
The voice of the guardian power divine, — 

Burst forth on his awestruck ear : 
" And deem'dst thou then that the hand of men 

Could mar my sacred tree ? 
That mortal blow could the stem lay low 

That was planted of old by me ? 
By Pallas nurst it rose at first, 

To grace this favoured land ; 
And aye shall be seen its branches green 

Unscathed by tyrant's hand. 
My pillaged fane, my fair domain; 

Burnt by a ruthless foe, — 
My sons shall avenge with their own good swords, 

And lay thy glory low ! 
With a single sail thou shalt woo the gale, 

From Hellas forced to fly, 
And Athens' bards shall tell the tale 

In strains that shall never die ! 
Aye, once and again on the battle plain, 

Thy myriads shall scattered be ; 
And kings shall learn a lesson stern 

In the land of the brave and free ! 
And though deeper gloom may brood ere long 

O'er Athena's hallowed ground, 
And the warrior's shout, and the poet's song, 

No longer here resound ; — 



THE OLIVE OF MINERVA. 77 

Yet deathless lays my children's praise j 

Shall spread from shore to shore, 
And Athens' name by the voice of fame 

Be hallowed evermore ! 
And pilgrim bands from distant lands 

Shall seek my ruined fane, 
Till to fancy's eyes my towers shall arise 

In their beauty and pride again ! 
And while they mourn my city's fall, 

Nurse of the wise and free, — 
Proud king, the meanest of them all 

Shall scorn to think on thee ! " 



78 



A LEGEND OF MACEDON; OE, THE TALE OF 
PEKDICCAS. 

Greater liberty has been taken with the original in this ballad than in any 
of the others. The prominence at once given to Perdiccas, — the trait of piety 
and devotion to Juno, the patron Goddess of the Argives, — the character of 
Orestes, as well as his name (Mountaineer), — the death of the two elder brothers, 
and the marriage of Perdiccas, are all grafted on the somewhat scanty narrative 
of Herodotus. But besides this and other amplifications, the author has ven- 
tured to have recourse to other sources of information, as well as to invent on 
his own responsibility one very important character, — the daughter of King 
Thurimas. She is a mere creature of the imagination, a child of the roses of 
Bermius, the mention of which suggested her origin. The authorities for 
supposing that there was a settlement of the Temenidee in Macedonia, before 
the arrival of Perdiccas and his brethren, are to be found in Miiller (Dorians, ii. 
p. 480, &C.), 1 who considers the three kings mentioned by chronologers, 
Caranus, Ccenus, and Thurimas or Turimmas, to have belonged to this dynasty. 
Edessa is regarded as the seat of empire of the older branch. Both Edessa 
and Bercea being situated in the region bounded by the rivers Lydias and Ha- 
liacmon, there seemed no improbability in supposing a junction taking place 
in the days of Perdiccas between the two branches ; and the conquest of 
Lebsea seemed a natural step in the further progress of the conquerors. 
Lebsea, which Herodotus does not place, is supposed to be in Lyncus, in which 
district rises Mount Barnus, a distinct mountain from Bermius. 

It is hoped that the interview between Perdiccas and his ladye-love in the 
gardens of Midas will not be considered unclassical by those who have 
noticed how much more of resemblance to modern notions is to be found in 
the very early days of Grecian History than in the commonly received 
classical period. The more free intercourse between the sexes, and the 
greater prevalence of something like what we call " sentiment," are among 
the marked features in the Homeric poems as compared with the tragedians. 
Among the latter writers we should look in vain for such passages as II. iv. 
143., or xxii. 126. 

The author must apologise for having ventured, in this ballad, to go beyond 

1 The reference is to the English translation. 



A LEGEND OF MACEDON; OR, PERDICCAS. 79 

Herodotus in the regions of the marvellous. The mysterious action of Per- 
diccas in drawing up the rays of the sun into his bosom, is simply narrated by 
Herodotus, who leaves it to the reader to suppose, with the king in the story, 
that it had some emblematic intention. The writer of the ballad has taken 
the liberty of developing the supposed emblem into a charm, and of enlarging 
upon its working. But, though in doing so he has far exceeded the letter of 
his original, he hopes that he will not be considered to have departed from 
its spirit. 

The three first stanzas are put into the mouth of Alexander, son of Amyntas, 
king of Macedon. Amyntas is supposed to be still alive, but not present at 
the banquet ; Alexander to have just returned from Olympia, where, after 
proving his Hellenic descent, he was allowed to run in the stadium, and ran a 
dead heat, — awe^mirTe re? irpwrcp. Gygaea was the name of the sister of 
Alexander. 



I. 

In famed Olympia's contest we have not won the prize, 

Though with the first we ran full well, to our southern friends' 

surprise ; 
And ere another year has passed, upon some luckier day, 
Amyntas' son, so swift to run, shall bear the palm away ! 

II. 

'Mid true-born sons of Hellas who claims the foremost place ? 
The man who wears the olive-wreath of the famed Olympic race ! 
And we of Macedon, I ween, though northward far we range, 
Are sprung from old Hellenic sires, and blood can never change. 

in. 
" Then fill me up a brimming cup ! and, nobles, drink," quoth he, 
" To the judges true before whose view we proved our pedigree ; 
And let our minstrel tell the tale, that our fathers handed down, 
How first the race of Temenus won Macedonia's crown." 



80 A LEGEND OF MACEDON ; OK, 



THE TALE OF PERDICCAS. 

PAKT I. 
I. 

Behind Lebasa's city the sun was setting fast, 

When up the hill three brethren toiled, and through the gateway 



The first was stout Aeropus, the next Gauanes tall, 
The third was young Perdiccas, the noblest of them all. 

n. 
In humble guise those youths were clad, and weary seemed each 

one, 
As through the city's gate they passed, beneath the setting sun ; 
And, ere their feet had paced the street and gained the palace door, 
Full many a light of early night had gemmed the starry floor. 



Before the rustic palace- gate the king Orestes stood, 

His steed was nigh with travel spent, and his lance all stained 

with blood, — 

The blood of those marauders wild who haunt that rugged plain 
Where Barnus l from the stormy sky descends to earth again. 

IV. 

Right onward to the palace-gate those three stout brethren came, 
And he asked them of their native land, and he asked them oi 

their name; 
Then silent stood Aeropus, and eke Gauanes tall ; 
But spoke the young Perdiccas, the boldest of them all: — 

1 Virg. Geor. iii. 350. " Quaque redit Rhodope medium porrecta sub axem,' 1 
which much disputed passage the author believes to mean, " at the foot of lofty 
Rhodope." 



THE TALE OF PERDICCAS. 81 

V. 
" From Argos, in the Apian land, oh ! king, thy servants come, 
To seek, amid these northern climes, a calmer, happier home. 
The echoes of our native land with fierce dissensions ring ; 
They have left us but our strong right hands, and these to thee 
we bring." 

VI. 

Oh ! some can trace a noble soul through many a quaint disguise ; 
And virtue's mark is never dark, except to blinded eyes. 
And well I ween, 'neath vesture mean, it could not all be hid, 
The princely grace of that ancient race, the Argive Temenid ! 

VII. 

Was it the night, whose scanty light beguiled the monarch's ken ? 
Or did the shadow of his fate come stealing o'er him then ? 
For, whom the gods l would fain destroy; upon his darkened soul 
A fateful phrensy oft comes down, and prescient thunders roll ! 

vru. 
He seemed to muse a little space, and then he smiled and said, 
"Ye shall sleep beneath a monarch's roof, and share a monarch's 

bread. 
The first shall tend my gallant steeds, the next my oxen keep, 
And the third, yon stripling fair and bold, shall feed my fleecy 

sheep." 

IX. 

That night beneath Orestes' roof their weary limbs they laid ; 
And, ere he slept, to Jove's high queen the young Perdiccas 
prayed ; 

1 The sentiment is to be found in a fragment of Euripides, which is better 
known in its Latin version, " Quern Deus vult perdere prius dementat." 

G 



82 A LEGEND OF MACEDON ; OR, 

And slumber's boon stole o'er him soon, and with the early morn 
Full cheerily he went a-field, as one to labour born. 

x. 

Yet oft, methinks, a blush of shame came flushing o'er his cheek 
As he fed the monarch's sheep alone along those mountains bleak. 
He bethought him of his native land, and his highborn sires' 

renown, 
And a chilling pang of hopeless worth upon his soul came down. 

xir 
" 'Tis sad to keep these silly sheep on these dreary mountains lone, 
For one whose hand can wield a brand, whose sires have graced a 

throne. 
Nor marvel I that Peleus' son l , amid those maidens bright, 
Should gladly hail that merchant's tale who call'd him to the fight. 

xn. 

" Oh ! Queen of Jove, whom Argives love, wherever thou mayst 

be; — 
In yonder heaven I strive to trace the path that leads to thee. — 
Far hence above my Argive home, hear thou my suppliant cry, 
That a shepherd 2 of the people they may greet me ere I die ! " 






XIII. 

Thus prayed the youth, nor deemed in sooth the fated hour was 
near 

When again his hand should wield a brand and launch the qui- 
vering spear. 

1 The allusion is to the well-known post-Homeric story, that at the time 
of the siege of Troy Achilles was concealed in the court of Lycomedes in a 
woman's dress, to avoid joining in the expedition ; hut was discovered hy 
Ulysses, who visited the court for that purpose in the disguise of a pedlar. 

2 noifxwa Xawv, the well-known Homeric epithet of a king or chieftain. 



1 



THE TALE OF PERDICCAS. 83 

And mournfully he wended home, and reached the monarch's 

stalls, 
And there he left his fleecy care, and sought the city's walls. 



PART II. 

i. 
There were few such princely monarchs as Amyntas, best of 

men — 
There were few such stately maidens as fair Gygaea, then. 
A rugged life, 'mid war and strife, the plundering monarch led, 
And the queen, with her own dainty hands, herself she made the 

bread ! 

ii. 
And every noon that lady fair, on household cares intent, 
Baked for the serfs their daily loaf, ere to their toil they went ; 
And every morn a wondrous sight appalled her gazing eyes, 
For the loaf of young Perdiccas was twice the wonted size. 

HI. 

" There's magic here/' the lady cried, " it was not well, oh ! king, 
Thus rashly to thy peaceful home these wizard serfs to bring ; 
And send them hence again, forthwith, or, by the gods above, 
I ne'er will bake a loaf again, for anger or for love." 

IV. 

An angry man Orestes grew, as angry men have been, 

And he swore an oath against the serfs, and he frowned upon the 

queen ; 
For well he knew such stalwart youths he ne'er again should find, 
And well he knew that lady's tongue was wondrous hard to bind. 

G 2 



84 A LEGEND OF MACEDON ; OR, 

V. 
And, sooth to say, the tale was strange, and a voice within him 

said 
That the fortunes of the serf might grow, perchance, as grew the 

bread ; 
And, small as good Orestes' fame 'mid pious men might be, 
Yet something of the hand divine in this he seemed to see. 

VI. 

He called the serfs before him, and with angry voice he said, 
" This night beneath another roof, young men, ye lay your head ! 
And woe be to your mother's son who, when the sun goes down, 
Shall linger still to work me ill in fair Lebasa's town ! " 

VII. 

The young men heard the angry word, indignant and amazed ; 
They gazed upon each other, and on the king they gazed : 
Aghast stood stout Aeropus, and eke Gauanes tall, 
But spoke the young Perdiccas the boldest of them all : — 

VIII. 

" Oh ! king, we bow to thy command, though something strange 

it be; 
Yet listen to the humble claim that justice makes on thee ; 
Grant us forthwith our wages due for labour duly done ; 
And, though loth to leave thy service, we will take it, and be 

gone." 

IX. 

The monarch heard th' unwelcome word that spoke of wages due, 
And sudden phrensy seized his soul, though just the claim he knew 



THE TALE OF PERDICCAS. 85 

And he pointed to the sun's bright rays that through the rafters 

shone, — 
" Yon light," quoth he, " your wages be ; ho ! take it and be gone ! " 



x. 

Then spoke the young Perdiccas ; and, as he spoke, he bowed — 
His voice was clear, and something stern, though its tones were 

never loud. 
And from his side his dirk he drew, and traced a circle round, 
Where the golden rays of Phoebus were streaming on the ground. — 



XI. 

And as he spoke, a sudden gleam came o'er his face the while, 
And o'er his features seemed to play a strange mysterious smile. 
And, but that king Orestes had turned in wrath aside, 
Methinks he must have seen the smile that lit that brow of pride.- 



xn. 

But the angry monarch turned aside, ere yet the youth could say. 
" The wages of thy gift, oh ! king, we take and go our way.'' 
And thrice into his breast he drew those rays of streaming light, 
And higher seemed his form to rise, and his eye to shine more 
bright ! 

XHI. 

The serfs have left the palace, and through the gateway passed ; 
And " 'twere well," said stout Aeropus, " that we should travel 

fast ; 
For, if Perdiccas' theft is known to Orestes or the queen, 
They will send a friendly message to ask us what we mean." 



86 



XIV. 

And "well I ween," G-auanes said, and his cheek with anger 

burned, 
" That they who saw have told the king, although his back was 

turned ; 
And much I fear we soon shall hear his horsemen on our track 
To ask yon magic loaf -maker to give his sunshine back." 

xv. 

And at the word a shout was heard, though distant far away, — 

A shout of warriors in pursuit, and eager for the prey ; 

For from the hill Orestes' men the fugitives had seen, 

Who came to ask Perdiccas what his mystic theft might mean. 

XVI. 

For some had told the savage king what that wondrous youth had 

done ; 
How in his breast, beneath his vest, he bore away the sun : 
And a deadly chill came o'er him first, and then with rage he 

glowed, 
And sent his swiftest horsemen straight to slay them on their road. 

XVII. 

" Now haste we onward to the ford; and, brethren, frown not so ; 

The Queen of Jove with looks of love beholds us as we go. 

Who walks beneath the Queen's high care," the young Perdiccas 

cried, 
" No blow need fear of hostile spear, no faithless monarch's pride ! " 

xvm. 
They hastened on o'er brake and stone, and to the ford they came — 
I know not what in days of yore might be that river's name — 



THE TALE OF PEKDICCAS. 87 

But well I know, the Saviour stream we call it to this day ; 
And Macedonia's monarchs there their grateful offerings pay. 

XIX. 

The gentle stream was murmuring low on its rocky channel wide, 
Like one who whispered words of love to the tall trees by its side. 
And as across the ford they passed, those Jove-born brethren three, 
The waters of the Saviour stream were scarce above their knee. 

xx. 

Upon a little hill beyond they rested from their race ; 
And soon upon the wind they heard the shouts of men in chase. 
And the brethren twain began again on that stripling bold to frown, 
As nearer to the Saviour stream the horse came tramping down. 

XXI. 

" Now pause awhile," with conscious smile the young Perdiccas 

said; 
" Yon waters low ere long shall grow as grew the monarch's bread ; 
For, sure as in my breast I bear the sun's prophetic beam, 
The horsemen of yon churlish king shall never cross the stream ! " 

xxn. 
And as he spoke a sound awoke, which they had not heard before, — 
The sound of rushing waters, a hoarse and threatening roar ; 
And at that moment in the sun they saw the lances quiver, 
And the horsemen of the cruel king have reached the Saviour 
river ! 

xxni. 
Why stand the warriors all aghast by the well-known river's side ? 
What spell has checked the chargers' speed, and tamed the rider's 
pride ? 

g4 



88 A LEGEND OF MACEDON ; OR, 

Why haste they not to cross the ford and reach the grassy hill 
Where from their toil the way-worn serfs are calmly resting still ? 

XXIV. 

Right suddenly their steeds they checked as to the stream they 

came ; 
And they gazed upon the hills around, but the hills were still the 

same; 
But the humble stream they wont to ford was gone, and in its 

stead 
A swollen torrent roared apace, and tossed its foaming head. 

xxv. 

The baffled horsemen lingered long, and strove to cross the stream, 
Till the sun behind the mountains set, and rose the moon's pale 

beam; 
And the mocking waters danced and roared, as if they fain would 

say, 
"What though ye be a monarch's men, ye shall never pass this 

way ! " 

XXVI. 

All slowly they have wended home and told the king the tale ; 
And first his cheek grew red with rage and then with terror pale ; 
And he bade them slay those horsemen straight, though he knew 

the deed was vain ; 
For the sunshine of his life was gone, and ne'er would come again ! 



PART III. 

i. 
Where Haliacmon eastward rolls, the exiled youths have come ; 
And through blood and toil in that rugged soil they strive to win 
a home. 



THE TALE OF PERDICCAS. 89 

And slain is stout Aeropus, Gauanes slain is he ; 
But safe is young Perdiccas, the noblest of the three. 

ii. 
Yes, safe is young Perdiccas, he "bears a charmed life" — 
'Mid many an ambush dark unscathed, — unscathed 'mid battle 

strife : 
Nor marvel I that o'er his weal should watch the eye divine, 
Who nursed the seed of man's best breed, the great A Icicles' line. 

in. 
He has won him sheep and oxen, he has won him pastures wide ; 
He has wooed a monarch's daughter, she has sworn to be his bride ; 
But not till fair Lebaea's town has fall'n beneath his sway, 
Will young Perdiccas ask her sire to name their marriage day. 

rv. 
Full well I ween Perdiccas' bride was not of low degree, 
But one of his own kindly race the true Temenidae : 
For there, twice forty years before, Caranus fixed his seat ; 
And Thurimas, his grandson, lives his kinsman bold to greet. 

v. 
In fair Bercea's new-built halls he feasts his kinsman bold — 
And they talked of great Alcides' deeds, and the glorious days 

of old. 
" When first our valleys heard thy fame," then spoke the aged king, 
" I augured sooth such peerless youth from Jove's own blood must 

spring. 

VI. 

" To spread my line the powers divine have given no son to me ; 
Be thine my daughter bright to wed, my kingdom's heir to be : 



90 A LEGEND OF MACEDON ; OR, 

Perdiccas and Caranus' line shall then united bloom, 
And thence shall spring a conquering king *, when we are in the 
tomb! 

VII. 

Where Lydias laves my northern bounds Edessa's towers arise, 
My warrior father Coenus there, and there Caranus lies ; 
Beroea southward guards my realm ; but then our reign shall be 
On either side the iEgaean wide, to Adria's western sea ! " 

VIII. 

Then gaily to the aged king replied Perdiccas bold, 

" I have won me flocks and pastures fair — I have won me brass 

and gold ; 
But ere the new-born moon shall wane, if heaven my footsteps 

guide, 
I'll bring Lebaea's monarch's crown as a present for my bride." 

IX. 

Oh ! sweetly at old Bermius' foot in Midas' garden grows, 
Full sixty leaves in every flower, the bright and fragrant rose ; 
And there Perdiccas walked at eve in the balmy summer tide, 
With the monarch's lovely daughter, who was pledged to be his 
bride. 

x. 

And many a loving word was said in that calm delightful hour, 
And from a rose-bush ere she went the lady plucked a flower. 
" I cull thee for an exile now ; but, when next I wander here, 
Thou shalt grace a new-made monarch's wreath, or strew a 
warrior's bier." 

1 The allusion is to Alexander the Great. The classical reader will remem- 
ber Dido's vision of Hannibal, in Virgil, Mn. iv. 625. 



THE TALE OF PERDICCAS. 91 

XI. 
Perdiccas smiled and kissed the flower, " Sweet lady, say not so ! 
For well I ween our Argive Queen will shield me where I go. 
Lo ! in my breast I place thy rose until my wreath is won ; 
And methinks it will not wither there, for the sweet flower loves 
the sun ! " 

XII. 

The maid has left the garden bright, and sought her father's tower, 
But there Perdiccas mused alone for many a silent hour. 
At length among the flowers he sank, half-dreaming, half-awake, 
Till the circling stars began to set, and the rosy dawn to break. 

xni. 
He has called his gallant comrades, he has tried his trusty blade, 
But, ere they went, to Jove's high Queen the youthful warrior 

prayed, — 
" Oh ! Queen of Jove, whom Argives love, my own, my father's 

stay ; 
Avenge me on Lebasa's king ; guide thou my destined way ! " 

xrv. 
Whene'er Perdiccas went to lead his comrades to the war, 
Upon his breast there stood confessed a bright unearthly star. 
It came, I trow, that magic glow, on that mysterious day, 
When from Lebsea's palace floor he bore the sun away. 

xv. 

Concealed or seen, full well I ween that light was shining still, 
A pledge of destined empire wide o'er may a sunlit hill ; 
And as towards fair Lebsea's town that morn the warrior sped, 
The kindred ray of the god of day played fondly round his head. 



92 A LEGEND OP MACEDON. 

XVI. 

They have reached the little grassy mound where the exiled 
brethren lay ; 

And Perdiccas' heart within him burned as he thought upon 
that day. 

They have plunged into the Saviour stream all glad with mar- 
tial glee ; 

And the waters of the Saviour stream were scarce above their knee. 



XVII. 

They have hemmed Lebaea's startled walls with their spearmen's 

iron ring, 
They have forced the fated palace-doors and slain the churlish king. 
And all the land Orestes held beneath the sun's bright ray 
Has felt the might of that magic light, and owned Perdiccas' sway. 



XVIII. 

And Thurimas, that monarch old, in far Edessa sleeps — 
And o'er his grave Perdiccas brave, and sweet Gygaea weeps ; 
And Juno high with favouring eye beheld that kindred pair, 
As bright as Phoebus in the sky, as rose in garden fair ! 

XIX. 

And still that line the eye divine delighteth to behold, 

And kings have sprung, whom bards had sung, had they lived in 

days of old. 
Ah ! well I know my voice is low, — but had I Homer's string, 



The glories of that generous race I yet would love to sin 



93 



THE FEAST OP ATTAGINUS. 2 

The reader who, jealous for the fame of Herodotus, may have complained of 
the introduction of extraneous matter into the last ballad, will, it is hoped, he 
pacified by the fidelity which the present observes. With the exception of a 
little amplification there is nothing in the ballad which is not to be found in 
Herodotus, save the reflections on the treachery of Attaginus, and the illustra- 
tions in the fourteenth stanza. The banquet took place at Thebes ; the river 
is the Asopus. 



I. 

" Grecian guest, my couch who sharest, strange the chance that 

links us here, 
Fellows in the gay carousal, not the meeting of the spear ; 
At the selfsame board reclining, at this all unlooked-for feast, 
Where with Grecia's lords are mingled chiefs and satraps of the 

East. 

ii. 

" But, since fate our lot has blended, let me leave my words im- 
pressed 

On thy heart in friendly memory of thy transient fellow-guest ; 

That, forewarned of fated evil, thou mayst counsel take, and 
know 

How to meet thy share of danger, or to shun the common blow. 

in. 
" Thine, perchance, to 'scape the battle, and thy added years to tell, 
'Mid the joys of stormy freedom, which the Grecians love so well ; 

1 Herod, ix. 15, 16. 



94 THE FEAST OF ATTAGINUS. 

Ours by yonder stream to perish, or in dungeons pent to lie, 
Record of the king's invasion, and the Grecian's victory ! " 

IV. 

Spake the mournful Persian feaster, while the rest the goblets 

plied, 
To the Orchomenian noble, strangely seated by his side, 
At the feast of Attaginus, which to Persia's lords he gave, — 
— In his halls the foe receiving, like a willing Theban slave ! 

v. 
Hark ! the traitor's halls are ringing with the mingled sounds of 

mirth ; 
While beneath, for Persia's noblest yawns the free indignant 

earth ; 
And he sits on high and welcomes gaily each invader lord ; 
Whom of late the true three hundred greeted with the sheathless 

sword.j 

VI. 

Courteous host ! his friends he welcomes, little recks he that they 

come, 
Fresh from fired Athenian temple, ravished maid, and plundered 

home; 
Little recks that many a Theban, loathing now his treacherous 

part, 
Longs his peaceful knife to bury in his fellow-reveller's heart. 

VII. 

Hark ! the shouts are stilled a moment, and the Theban minstrel 

sing ; 
Softly floats Boetia's war-note to the armies of the king ! 



THE FEAST OF ATTAGINUS. 95 

But, when ceased the strain, and round them mirth once more rose 

loud and high, 
Thus again the mournful Persian sadly spoke with glistening eye : 

vm. 

" Seest thou, friend, yon Persian revellers, well I ween a princely 

band — 
Gallant generals, stately satraps, flower of our imperial land ? 
And rememberest thou the army which we left beside the stream, 
Where the standards of the nations, and their myriad lances gleam ? 

IX. 

" Who can stand against the army which the Persian king of kings, 

As if earth her tribes were moving, from his world-wide empire 
brings ? 

Who can stand against the army which such wondrous deeds has 
wrought ? 

Bridged the sea and bored the mountain — springs not thus th' un- 
bidden thought ? 



" Yet of all the stately nobles, gathered here in festal pride, 
Of the many-peopled army, camped by yonder river's side — 
Warriors in their iron vigour — feasters in their silken mirth — 
Ere a few short days are over, few shall tread the joyous earth !" 

XL 

Thus the Persian, sadly musing o'er the ill that should betide, 
Told the tale of doom and slaughter to the stranger by his side. 
And, amid the joyous banquet, while the rest with pleasure glow, 
Lo ! his tears are quickly falling at the vision of the woe ! 



96 THE FEAST OF ATTAGINUS. 

XII. 
Spake the Orchomenian noble : " If it thus indeed must be, 
Wer 't not well that great Mardonius heard the destined doom 

from thee ? 
To the general of the army, and the nobles high in state, 
Let the prophecy be spoken, and the dark designs of fate ! " 

XIII. 

" Friend, I thank thee for thy council ; but I know that none 

would hear ; 
Vainly seek the words of wisdom access to a fate-bound ear. 
And the woe that God hath destined on the race of man to bring, — 
Mortal hand can ne'er avert it — host or general, slave or king ! 

XIV. 

" What avail the heaven-sent thunders, in the distance rolling deep, 
If the souls they fain would waken slumber still in heedless sleep ? 
What avails to mark the storm-clouds gathering in the darkening 

sky, 
If the feet are bound and move not, though the shelter seemeth 

nigh? 

xv. 

" Many a Persian in the army knows the doom I tell to thee, 
That ere long our warrior myriads slaughtered and enslaved 

shall be. 
But we follow, soulless victims, to the dungeon or the tomb, 
Yoked to draw the crushing chariot of inevitable doom ! 

XVI. 

" Many a weary weird of sorrow is by God to mortals given ; 
But of all the woes of mortals this is worst beneath the heaven — 
When the many-musing spirit ever offers counsel true ; 
But the will, by fate o'ermastered, hath no power to rise and do." 



97 



THEEMOPYL^. 1 

In adding this Ballad, which was an afterthought, to the present 
collection, the author feels that, like the heroes of his story, on the 
third day of the battle, he is, as it were, leaving the " narrow," which 
he prescribed to himself in his Preface, and advancing into a wider 
and more dangerous field. His object was to give greater variety, 
and, if possible, greater animation, to his little volume. How far he 
has succeeded in this respect the reader must decide. But he hopes 
that he may avoid the charge of presumption in thus venturing 
*' magna modis tenuare parvis," by calling attention to the fidelity 
with which he has followed the narrative, and frequently even the 
language of his original. 2 1: is object has rather been to exhibit the 
jewel of Herodotus, than to encumber it with any elaborate setting 
of his own. A few remarks, however, seemed inevitable in 
writing on such a subject, and a few details have been invented, 
the principal of which are the following : — It is not stated by 
Herodotus that the Trachinians remonstrated with Leonidas on his 
vain attempt to resist the army of Xerxes ; but it seemed probable that 
they should do so, as we are informed that they acquainted the 
Greeks with the secret of the Anopeea (the track betrayed by Ephi- 
altes); and the figurative description of the numbers of the Persian 
(introduced in the Ballad) is said to have been given to Diseneces 
" by one of the Trachinians." The Cissian charge of cavalry under 
Tithseus (who is named as one of the three generals of the cavalry 3 ) 
is also an invention of the author. It is hoped that this will not 
seem improbable when it is remembered, — 1. That the Medes and 
Cissians, to whom Xerxes 4 gave his first ridiculous orders (" in a 

1 Herod, vii. 198—229. 

2 The author did not feel justified, in the case of an historical, 
not legendary, battle, and one so famous, in condensing the action 
into a day, or altering the time of the death of Leonidas, both which 
might have been improvements to the Ballad. 

s vii. 88. Tithseus was son of Datis, one of the generals at Mara- 
thon, and may be supposed to have been eager to efface the disgrace 
of his father's defeat. 

4 vii. 210. 

H 



THERMOPYL-aS. 

rage," like Naaman, another oriental), " to go and bring Leonidas 
and his band alive into his presence," usually served on horseback \ 
and, moreover, were among the few nations who are recorded 2 as 
having actually supplied cavalry ou this occasion. 2. That the 
scout, who was sent to reconnoitre the Greek post, which was to the 
east of the narrow, at the junction of the Phoenix and Asopus, 
evidently 3 rode very near it. 3. That Xerxes was without mili- 
tary experience, had an extravagant idea of his own power, an 
utter contempt for his enemy, and an utter disregard of human life. 
4. The troops, whatever they were, are said to have fallen upon the 
Greeks impetuously QpepSfMevoi). 

The action of Xerxes in starting from his seat (which Herodotus 
introduces with an " it is said,") has been transferred from the first 
to the second day. The idea of Xerxes watching the sunrise, and 
his libation being offered to the Sun-god, is borrowed from Mr. Mit- 
ford. The author is responsible for the speech of Diseneces on the 
third day of the battle, but he has the authority of Herodotus 4 for 
the fact of Diameces having " left behind him many other such-like 
sayings," besides that which he himself records, and which is intro- 
duced early in this Ballad. 



Go, take the style 5 of glory, 

And write their names on high ; 

For some have fought to conquer y 
But these have fought to die ! 



PART I, 

" Carnean 6 moons will shine ere long, 
We must not march straightway, 

1 vii. 84. 2 Ibid. " 3 vii. 208. 4 vii. 226. 

s The author has ventured to use " style " in this sense as an 
English word, finding ypacpls so translated in Messrs. Liddell and 
Scott's Lexicon. 

6 The Spartan festival in honour of Apollo kept in the month of 
the same name. See Eur. Ale. 449. 



THERMOPYLAE. 99 

But we must keep, with dance and song, 

Apollo's holy day. 
Nine days the solemn feast we keep, 

And, when those days be past, 
The Persian king, who deems we sleep, : 

Shall hear our Dorian blast, 
Our king shall keep the foe at bay 

'Twixt (Eta and the tide ; 
By the sea-wall 1 we bade them stay 

Three hundred spearmen tried ! 
Our king shall show the Spartan's mind, 

And, when that mind they see, 
Our faint allies, who snuff the wind, 

Shall straight stout-hearted be." 

" Olympia's feast will soon be here, 

And each true Grecian son 
Must wend, the new-made odes to hear, 

And see the coursers run. 
I doubt the Island 2 steeds will sweep 

The foremost palm away ; 
Along the stream those coursers leap 

Like a wild goat at play. 
God help the Spartan king, say we, 

But sure it were a crime 
If we should northward summoned be 

At this most holy time." 



1 An old wall across the narrow at Thermopylae, built by the 
Phocians, and lately repaired by the Greek confederacy. 

2 Sicily, greatly distinguished, especially about this period at the 
Olympic games. 

H 2 



100 THERMOPYLAE. 

So spake each Spartan, calm and cold, 

So spake each faint ally, 
And doomed that little vanguard bold 

In Pylse's pass to die. 

" The king has come, two millions strong, 

Into our rugged plain ; 
The broad expanse his myriads throng — 

Oh ! hie ye home again ! 
With twice two thousand men injdl, 

How can ye hope to stand ? 
Oh ! king, ye only fight to fall, 

Nor guard your native land. 
Like a dark storm-cloud from the north 

His countless hosts are driven, 
And when they shoot their arrows forth 

The sun is hid in heaven ! " 



" Ye men of Trachis, good and true, 

We thank you from our heart ; 
But Sparta's hest we came to do, 

And we will ne'er depart. 
Let yonder threatening storm-cloud burst, 

And sweep our band away ! 
Unto this post we came at first, 

And in this post we stay. 
What matter where the brave shall lie, 

What soil receives his dust ? 
The Spartan's glory is to die, 

Keeping his sacred trust ! " 



thermopyl.se. 101 

" Nay," quoth Diasneces " oh ! king, 

Methinks thy words are weak ; 
Tis good, the news these strangers bring, — 

And if the truth they speak, 
And if by Persia's arrows' flight 

So dark a cloud be made, 
'Twere well to 'scape the sunbeams bright, 

And fight them in the shade ! " 

A scout rode forth from Persia's host — 

What saw the horseman there ? 
He saw each Spartan at his post, 

Combing his long dark hair, 
ile looked again along the strand — 

What might he tell the king ? 
Before the wall another band 

Was wrestling in a ring ! 
He marvelled much, and drew more near, 

Then rode in peace away : 
There was no hand that raised a spear, 

No voice that said him nay. 
Loud 1 laughed king Xerxes at the word, 

A scornful laugh laughed he, 
And turned where Sparta's exiled lord 2 

Was standing silently. 



" The first line that Sir Patrick read 
A loud laugh laughed he." 

Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence. 
2 Demaratus, who after being deposed had taken refuge at the 
court of Xerxes. 

H 3 



102 THERMOPYL^. 

"Now, by heaven's vault 1 , Ariston's son, 

Bead me this jest, I pray ; 
Four days we wait to see them run ; 

Why do these Spartans stay ? 
And wherefore do they comb their hair, 

And wherefore sport and play, 
Like men who for a feast prepare, 

Or keep their natal day?" 2 

" Oh ! king, replied Ariston's son, 

My words thou wilt not heed ; . 
These men are purposed, every one, 

To do a glorious deed ! 
"Whene'er the Spartans, one and all, 

For deadliest risk prepare, 
Like men who hold high festival, 

They comb their long dark hair. 
I told thee once their purpose high, 

I tell thee now again : 
These men are come — they cannot fly — 

To slay and to be slain ! " 

" Nay," quoth the king, with pleasant scorn, 

" The truth I tell to thee ; 
Yon post, before to-morrow's morn, 

Will all deserted be ! " 



i <( 



The Vault of Heaven," says Herodotus (i. 131.), " is what the 
Persians call ' Jupiter.' " 

2 " And most of all days they (the Persians) use to honour that 
on which each was born." {Herod, i. 133.) 



THERMOPYLAE:. 103 



PAUT IL 



The morn shone out on Persia's host, 

The white tents glimmered fair ; 
It shone on Grecia's sea-beat post, 

And still the Greeks were there. 

" Now, by my sires," the monarch cried, 
" These slaves chastised must be ; 

Let Media charge, and Cissia's pride, 
And bring yon Greeks to me ! * 

" Mine," cried Tithagus, " mine alone, 

The destined praise, to bring, 
To kneel before their master's throne, 

Yon Spartans and their king ! 
Mount, Cissians, mount ! your monarch calls ; 

Is not your boast to lave 
Your steeds 'neath Susa's royal walls, 

In cool Choaspes' wave ? " 

With that the Cissian horsemen dashed 

The narrow pass to gain, 
Oft on the rock their horse-hoofs flashed 

E'en as they crossed the plain. 
All calmly by the water's edge 

The Grecian vanguard stood, 
And on this side the rocky ledge, 

On that the ocean-flood. 
h 4 



104 THERMOPYL^. 

Eight gaily to the narrow pass 

The turbaned horsemen ride ; 
They stirred each blade of scanty grass 

Upon the hill's dark side. 
The king has marked his horsemen ride, 

He marked them ride amain 
Between the mountains and the tide ; 

Why come they not again ? 
There is a little road of stone 

Kissing the ocean's lip ; 
A single wain might pass alone 

Along that stony strip. 
You might have deemed that mount and tide 

Had there conspired to be 
A barrier 'gainst th' invader's pride, 

A frontier of the free. 
All in that grim unyielding way 

Bristled the spearmen's wood ; 
And turbaned 1 Cissia's horsemen gay 

Are weltering in their blood ! 
Spurred on by Fear's despotic goad 

(Half sister she to Fame), 
Clattering along that stony road, 

By twos and threes they came. 
Staggering beneath that dreary ledge 

They strove their steeds to check, 
Where the fell spearmen's iron hedge 

Knotted the narrow neck. 



) u 



The Cissians wore the same armour as the Persians, save that 
instead of felt hats they wore turbans." (Herod, vii. 6, 7.) 



THEKMOPYL^. 105 

Scarce from her post beside the sea 

Sped Sparta's deadly thrust. 
Ere Cissia's graceful chivalry 

Was tumbled in the dust. 
All shattered by the salt-sea foam, 

Beneath the mountains high, 
Far from their soft imperial home 

The glittering horsemen lie ! 

But now upon that pass of fear 

The Median squadrons sweep, 
Where leans the dark rock forth to hear 

The challenge of the deep. 
" For chargers' hoofs yon plain is rough, 

Slippery l the stony strand, 
But Media's cornel spears are tough 

Grasped in a strong right hand ! " 
Right gallantly that gorgeous band 

Enters the rocky cleft ; 
The dark rock frowns on the right hand, 

The cold sea on the left ; 
But there 'twixt sea and rocky wall 

The Spartan spears they met ; 
And Media's bravest reel and fall, 

Caught in that bloody net. 



1 Pausanias (b. x.) says, speaking of the battle fought here 
between the Greeks and the Gauls under Brennus, that the cavalry 
on both sides was useless, owing, not only to the pass being narrow, 
but to the ground being smooth and generally slippery from natural 
rock. But the irrational and insolent character of Xerxes, the sup- 
posed zeal of Tithseus, and the Centaur-like habits of Orientals, will, it 
is hoped, justify the vain attempt of the Cissians as described above. 



106 THERMOPYLAE. 

" What ! do the craven Medians quail ? 

Let Persia charge straightway ! " 
Cried the proud king with anger pale, — 

"Hydarnes, to the fray!" 

Sprang forth Hydarnes at the word, 

Sprang forth th' Immortals' band 1 , 
Before the eyes of Persia's lord, 

The flower of Persia's land. 
" Charge, brave Immortals, charge amain ! 

Not yours at war to play ; 
Force yonder pass ! avenge the slain ! 

And sweep the Greeks away ! " 
With that th' Immortals shot like flame 

Into the narrow road ; 
But when on Sparta's spears they came 

Their heart's best life-blood flowed. 

" What ! can the proud Immortals die ? 

Ill have they played their part ! 
There's naught immortal 'neath the sky 

Except a brave man's heart ! " 

part in. 

Sudden and soft o'er sea and land 
The summer night comes down ; 

And hope is on the lonely strand, 
Terror in Trachis town. 

11 The Immortals were a band of 10,000 Persians, who acted as 
the king's body-guard, and had special privileges. Their numbers, 
wheu thinned by death or illness, were constantly supplied ; whence 
their name. See Herod. viL 83. 



THEKMOPYL.E. 107 

The summer night is in its grave, 

And day breaks forth to bring 
New joy to Sparta's patriots brave, 

New fury to the king. 

" Now, gallant Persians, charge once more ! 

They ne'er will stand your shock ; 
Your spears, that should have drunk their gore, 

Were wasted on the rock." 

Once more the king's best troops advance 

'Twixt Trachis and the main ; 
And redder grows the Grecian lance, 

And thicker lie the slain. 
As surely as the ebbing tide 

Flows back upon the shore, 
So surely, when one Persian died, 

Trooped forth a thousand more ; 
As surely as the rock's dark side l 

Flings back the ocean flood, 
The Grecian lance unmoved is dyed 

In Persia's noblest blood. 

Thrice sprang king Xerxes from his seat, 

All panic-struck was he ; 
He feared his myriads would be beat 

By Sparta's hundreds three. 

1 In looking through Bishop Thirlwall's account of the battle, 
with a view to correct any inaccuracies in the Ballad, the author 
discovered the same metaphor, " Their repeated onsets broke upon 
the Greeks idly as waves upon a rock." 



108 THERMOPYL.^. 

" Oh ! Sparta's king, thy words were truth," 
Groaned forth the monarch then, 

" Full many are my troops in sooth, 
But very few my men." 

That morn the Greeks with spear and lance 

Flung back the Persian charge, 
And now into the plain advance 

To fight them more at large ; 
That noon the Greeks with lance and blade 

Have forced the Persian back, 
But, ere the morrow's charge was made, 

The foe had won the track, — 
The little track that led on high, 

To few but plunderers known, 
Between the mountains and the sky — 

They found it not alone. 
Now trebly cursed to endless time 

Be Ephialtes' name ! 
Spread, spread, ye winds, from clime to clime 

The record of his shame — 
The wretch who dared the brave betray, 

The brave who knew no fear ; 
"Who showed the Persian foe the way 

To slay them at their rear ! 

'Twas eve, and here and there a lamp 
Was glimmering on the strand, 

When from the foes' exulting camp 
Marched the Immortals' band. 

The livelong night their course they sped, 
And with the morning light, 



THERMOPYLAE. 109 

High o'er the doomed Three Hundreds' head, 
Stood on the oak-clad height. 1 

That night the seer Megistias cried, 

" Let Fate's high will be done ! 
But if till morning here ye bide, 

Ye perish every one." 

" Seer," quoth the king, "I doubt thee not, 

Yet still I say the same ; 
A Spartan ne'er can leave the spot 

To which at first he came. 
And other voice of warning call 

From Delphi came to me — 
' A king of Herc'les' race must fall, 

Or Sparta ruined be.' 
And now upon this fated place, 

I read that word to thee — 
' The king shall die of Herc'les' race, 

But Sparta shall be free.' 
But thou, Megistias, homeward hie ! 

A peaceful trade is thine ; 
And 'tis not good the seers should die 

Who speak the words divine." 

" Nay," quoth the seer, " by this right hand, 

I too, oh ! king, will stay ; 
The leaders of the Spartan land 

I never will betray ; 

1 Herodotus is express about the oaks, — these summits are now 
woodless. 



110 THERMOPYLiE. 

And men shall say, ' 'Twas nobly done, 

With Sparta's king he lies ; ' 
Yet will I send my only son 

To glad his mother's eyes." 

All through that night's unvalued shade 1 

Came stragglers forth to say, 
" The Malian has the pass betrayed, 

The foe is on his way." 
And when the earliest streaks of light 

'Gan in the East appear, 
The scouts ran breathless from the height, 

Crying, " the foe is near." 

" Now haste ye home each bold ally ! 

'Tis now no deed of shame. 
The Spartans are enough to die 

To gild our Grecian name. 
And haste ye home each bold ally ! 

You yet may steal away ; 
And let the Spartans only die 

On this disastrous day." 

'Tis morning, and they all are gone. 

And on that fatal strand 
The faithful Thespians stand alone 

With Sparta's patriot band. 

1 " Now to the Greeks who were at Thermopylae, first of all the 
seer Megistias, after inspecting the victims, told the death that 
awaited them in the morning ; and next came in deserters, fully 
informing them of the circuitous route of the Persians (these gave 
them notice while it was yet night) ; and, thirdly, the scouts running- 
down from the heights when day was now beginning to dawn." 
{Herod, vii. 219.) 



THEBMOPYL^. 

Said I that Thespise stood alone ? 

The Theban warriors stay : 
" Ho ! lead us straight to Xerxes' throne. 

The first-fruits of the fray. 
We came not of our own free will, 

We fought not when we came, 
We be the king's true subjects still 

Despite our Grecian name," 



PART IV, 

Before his host at break of clay 

The mighty monarch stood, 
Ere yet the sun's ascending ray 

Had gilt the Malian flood. 
To see the, worshipped orb come forth 

In suppliant guise he stands ; 
A golden cup of priceless worth 

Is gleaming in his hands. 
He watched the darting sun-beams bright 

Light up the Ocean round, 
Then to the god who gave the light 

He poured it on the ground. 
" Three hours ere noon our spearmen stout 

Will line the southern shore ; 
Three hours ere noon your troops lead out 

And charge the Greeks once more." ] 

1 Herod, vii. 223. " And Xerxes, after making a libation at sun- 
rising, waited awhile, and began his attack as near as may be at full- 
market time," 



111 



112 THERMOPYLAE. 

Again that myriad-peopled host 
Has poured upon the plain ; 

And Sparta at her changeless post 
Has met them once again. 

" Now range awhile, my little band ! 

And if your hearts be strong, 
There yet is grave-room on the strand 

For yonder glittering throng!" 
They sallied forth into the plain 

That they the more might slay : 
" We ne'er shall see such crop again, 

Let's reap it while we may ! 
Too soon from yonder treacherous track 

Will troop the Persians down ; 
Yet may we choke their pathway back 

To Trachis' sheltering town ! " 

" And," quoth Diaeneces, " I trow 

Small cause have we to quake ; 
Unbroken yet our band shall go 

To Pluto's Stygian lake. 
And, if the slain barbarians wend 

To the same shores as we, 
In Charon's boat, my gallant friend, 

Their ghosts will crowded be ! 
And, if they say the Spartans fell 

In fair encounter slain, 
By the Twin Gods ! in plains of hell 

We'll fight them o'er again ! " 






THERMOPYLAE. 113 



" Ah ! gallant soul, unmoved in ill, 
Ah ! bravest of the brave ! l 

Jove grant we may be comrades still, 
By yonder Stygian wave ! " 



All through the morn the Spartan swords 

Yet more and more prevailed ; 
All through the morn those countless hordes 

Incessantly assailed. 
Some onward rushed with furious dash, 

Their prowess prompt to show, 
And some beneath the general's lash 

Were forced upon the foe. 
Some, seaward swept in vain retreat, 

A watery grave have found, 
And some beneath their comrades' feet 

Were trampled on the ground. 
The hungry Ocean eyed the strife, 

And crawled 2 to clasp his prey ; 
There was no count of human life 

On all that fearful day. 
Then fell the Spartan monarch good, 

All red with gore he died ; 
And princes twain of Xerxes' blood 

His reeking corpse bestride. 
He fell, but in a king's true place, 

Leading his patriot band ; 

1 The api<TTe?a, or palm of valour, is assigned by Herodotus to 
Diaeneces (vii. 226.) 

8 The sea even then is described by Herodotus as *' sea and 
shallows." 



1 14 THERMOPYL^. 

And princes twain of Xerxes' race 

Have fall'n on either hand. 
He fell, but o'er the hero slain 

More thick the carnage grew ; 
But Persia's spear-showers poured like rain. 

The Spartan thrusts were few. 
Four times to win his body back 

They grappled with the foe : 
" Our monarch's corpse ye ne'er shall hack 

While we can strike a blow ! " 

They won their monarch's corpse at last ; 

But who shall keep it won ? 
Four times the foe is backward cast, 

But still his bands come on. 
They won their monarch's corpse at length, 

But, when that deed was done, 
('Twas the last burst of hopeless strength) ; 

Their conquering race was run ; 
For now from out the southern glen 

The fierce Immortals came, 
(There be ten thousand chosen men 

Bear the Immortals' name) ; 
Yet, had they face to face that day 

The fierce Immortals met, 
As when they kept the narrow way, 

They would have foiled them yet. 
But now, upon those patriot few, 

Before, behind, around, 
The mingled myriads ceaseless grew 

From every inch of ground. 



THERMOPYL^. 115 

They thrid that narrow pass of fear, 

All choked with Persian dead, 
Ere yet his troops to hem their rear 

Hydarnes had outspread, 
And backed, yet not like those who flee, 

Beyond Anthela's plain — 
Beyond their wall beside the sea, 

So nobly held in vain. 

" Now close once more, make one last stand ! 

And, if your swords should fail, 
Have at them with the strong right hand, 

Have at them tooth and nail ! " 
They rallied on a hillock high, 

And there they fought full well : 
*' And if it be our lot to die 

Our lives' we'll dearly sell." 

With broken brands, with fists, with teeth, 

They played their desperate part, 
And every weapon found a sheath 

Deep in some Persian heart. 
There is a fierce unflinching glare 

In every Spartan's eye ; 
And, like a lion in his lair, 

They rend men ere they die. 
'Twas all in vain, th' unequal strife ; 

They sank beneath their foes : 
There was no scene in all their life 

So glorious as its close ! 



116 THERMOPYLAE. 

'Neath spears, and stones, and swords, and slain, 

All mounded o'er they lie ; 
So thickly fell that ghastly rain, 1 

They scarce could see them die. 
Thrust through and through with countless darts, 

They press that deadly sod : 
They were, I ween, the stoutest hearts, 

That ere went back to God. 
Seek yonder pass by the cold sea, 

Where Pylse's walls are steep ; 
For there lie Sparta's Hundreds Three, 

Sleeping a glorious sleep ! 
Search every land beneath the sky, 

Tell every nation's name ; 
For there 2 the true Three Hundred lie, 

Reaping an endless fame ! 
There is a lion all of stone 

Carved on a hillock high ; 
The bravest king e'er sat on throne 

Beneath that stone doth lie. 
There is a lion-hearted race 

O'er many a distant wave ; 
And in their soul the lines we trace 

Of Sparta's monarch brave. 
And some have well that lesson read, 

And learnt their sword to draw. 
Hopeless, except their blood to shed. 

For glory and for law ! 



1 " And there rained a ghastly dew." 

Tennyson's Locksley Hall. 
2 "The burial-place of the illustrious is in every land," &c. 
Thuc. ii. 43. 



THERMOPH YL^. 117 



Take, take, the style of glory, 
And grave their names on high ; 

For some have fought to conquer, 
But these have fought to die ! 



THE END. 



London : 

Spottiswoodes and Shaw, 

New-street Square. 





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